Our Commitment to Sustainability
At World of Glass, we recognise the importance of protecting our environment and supporting the communities and places in which we operate.
As a museum, glassmaking studio, café and shop in St Helens, we understand that our activities have an environmental impact. We are committed to reducing that impact wherever we can, while finding ways for our organisation to make a positive contribution to our local community and environment.
We recognise that sustainability is an ongoing journey. We will continue to review the way we work, identify areas where we can improve and make practical changes across our operations.
Our approach focuses on four key areas:
We are committed to:
We are taking practical steps to reduce the environmental impact associated with our buildings, operations, travel and use of resources.
Our hot glass studio furnace is fitted with a heat recovery system, helping us to make better use of the heat generated during the glassmaking process.
We will continue to look for opportunities to improve energy efficiency across our operations and reduce unnecessary energy use.
World of Glass is located on the Merseyrail network, providing visitors with the opportunity to travel to us by train.
We want to encourage visitors to consider public transport and other alternatives to travelling by car where practical. Our car park is limited, making public transport an attractive option for many visitors.
We are also exploring opportunities to work with Merseyrail to promote World of Glass and sustainable travel through visitor communications.
For organised groups and tours, travelling together can also help reduce the number of individual journeys made to our attraction.
We have significantly reduced our reliance on paper.
Where possible, invoices and statements are requested electronically and we have reduced printed records within our administration and bookkeeping.
Our marketing and communications are increasingly digital, using our website, social media, email and digital mailouts.
Where printing is necessary, we print selectively and in-house where possible, helping us control quantities and reduce unnecessary printing, ink use and waste.
We are committed to reducing waste and making better use of the resources we already have.
Glass is central to what we do at World of Glass.
Where possible, we reuse waste glass from our activities to create new and saleable items. This demonstrates how materials can be given a new purpose rather than simply being discarded.
We also look for opportunities to reuse other materials within our operations, including marketing materials and signage where appropriate.
We separate waste on site before it is collected and further processed by our waste management contractor.
This helps us maximise recycling and minimise the amount of waste sent to landfill.
We are monitoring the volumes of recycling and general waste we produce so that we can identify further opportunities for improvement.
We are also reviewing our waste arrangements to determine whether changes could increase the proportion of waste going into dry mixed recycling.
Our café team works to reduce food waste by making the best use of ingredients.
Our daily specials can be created using fresh ingredients that are approaching the end of their useful life, helping to prevent good food from going to waste.
Unavoidable food waste is collected separately and processed into products including biogas, giving food waste another useful purpose.
We have made changes to the disposable packaging used within our café.
Our disposable cups are recyclable, while recyclable paper bowls and plates are used for takeaway food. Our sandwich boxes are also fully recyclable.
We will continue to review our packaging choices and look for opportunities to reduce unnecessary materials.
Where possible, used coffee grounds from our café are reused as plant food in our outdoor spaces.
We use concentrated, multi-purpose cleaning products supplied by Keystone.
Using concentrated products can help reduce packaging, waste and the number of deliveries required.
Where paper is necessary, we aim to make responsible choices.
Our café menus are printed in-house on recycled paper, allowing us to control quantities and avoid unnecessary external printing.
We also use Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper where appropriate.
We recognise the importance of nature and the role that even small areas of green space can play in connecting people with the environment.
Our garden provides an opportunity to support nature while also giving our community and visitors a place to learn, grow and connect.
Our garden is home to a seed library established by Green Town St Helens.
The seed library is a community-led initiative that encourages people to share and grow plants and provides an opportunity for visitors to engage with ideas around growing, nature and the environment.
We are pleased to provide a space for this initiative and to support the work of a local community group.
As we develop our outdoor spaces, we will continue to look for opportunities to support planting, nature and biodiversity.
World of Glass is part of the St Helens community, and we want our activities to contribute positively to the town and the wider Liverpool City Region.
Supporting local businesses, makers and creatives is an important part of this.
Where possible, we work with local suppliers for our café, shop and wider operations.
Our café works with local and regional suppliers including:
Cottoms, Pimbletts, Bartons, Crumb Together, Your Choice and Crosby Coffee.
We also prepare food in-house wherever possible.
Working with local suppliers helps support businesses in our area and can reduce the distance associated with transporting goods.
Through our work with Yellow by Keep it Local, we support local crafters, makers and creatives.
Where possible, our suppliers are located within approximately 50 miles of World of Glass.
A significant amount of our own shop stock is also made on site, reducing the need for products to travel long distances before reaching our visitors.
World of Glass has a longstanding relationship with our twin town of Stuttgart in Germany.
Vines gifted to us from Stuttgart provide a visible reminder of this connection and the relationships that exist between our two communities.
We value these connections and the way they help us celebrate the history and identity of our place.
We want World of Glass to contribute to a thriving St Helens.
By attracting visitors to the town, we contribute to the wider visitor economy and encourage people to discover other attractions, businesses, cafés, shops and experiences across the area.
We also work with local organisations, publications and partners wherever possible, helping to strengthen connections within our local community and visitor economy.
We recognise that there is no single solution to the environmental challenges we face.
Our commitment is to continue making practical improvements, learning from others and looking for new opportunities to reduce our environmental impact and increase the positive contribution we make to St Helens.
We want World of Glass to be a place where our collections, glassmaking, café, shop, garden and visitor experience come together in a way that benefits both people and place.
We will continue to look for ways to do things better — for our visitors, our community, our environment and future generations.