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Net Zero

Putting climate change at the forefront of our business has meant we have recently been awarded an A rating for the energy efficiency of our building and significantly reduced our carbon footprint.

Our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint has seen us leading the way and opening the door for other businesses to follow our example of how to combine a successful business with saving the planet.

Here at Principal Doorsets, based in North Devon, we design and create premier doorsets for sectors including healthcare, education, leisure, high end residential and hospitality across the UK. Our Director, Stan Bond, is passionate that as the business thrives and grows, our impact on the planet must be reduced.

He says, “We recently upgraded our building which included replacing the old roof with a thermally efficient one. This allowed us to install almost 1300 solar panels which offers us more than 50% of our demand. This gives us an annual saving in carbon of 95.81 tonnes, equivalent to almost 6,000 trees planted, which assists us on our journey to achieving Net Zero targets. We are absolutely delighted that when our building was checked for energy efficiency, we moved up to an A rated building, which is very good for a commercial building.”

The roof isn’t the only initiative our company has adopted on our mission to Net Zero as Stan further explains, “Our wood waste is collected by a central extraction system, which not only keeps our workplace clean but allows us to use the wood waste to generate hot water and heat for our processing. Alongside the move to LED lighting to illuminate our processes, it keeps us very comfortable as we work on creating high-quality products for our customers. Our doorsets have an expected life cycle of 20 years, and we have many cases where well-made and correctly specified doorsets function perfectly well after 40 years which further aids our planet and is a testament to the hard work, expertise and experience of our fantastic team.”

Principal Doorsets was formed in 2014 by Rob Llewellyn and Stan Bond, former employees of Leaderflush Shapland, employing 15 members of staff. In 2018, following consistent growth, they moved from their premises in Bideford and they took on an ambitious 3.75 acre site in Barnstaple, to meet the growing needs of customers. Following further growth of our current site, the business employs 75 staff and is committed to continue the heritage of door manufacturing in Devon and keep the high quality craftmanship skills alive.

Drone view down to Solar panels on our factory roof, Pottington