Our measures

How we measure and report our data

As a social enterprise, we need to track a range of factors from service quality to social benefit to ensure we’re doing the best we can for the people and businesses that depend on us. Some things we can measure directly, some things need to be defined in order to pin down a number, and some things we have to estimate. You can learn more about how we do this below.

0 cubic yards of wood collected*

*As of January 2024

0% reused as timber
0% reused as firewood

Reuse and recycling

The reuse suitability of the wood in each load is determined either when the collection is made or when the wood is sorted back at the enterprise. This information is reported on our collection summaries and social and environmental impact reports.

0 of savings for our clients
0 tonnes CO2e saved
0 gallons of fuel saved

Greenhouse gas reduction

Various gasses contribute to climate change, for instance methane is between 20 and 120 times more damaging than carbon dioxide by weight, depending on how you measure it. This is why greenhouse gas impacts are usually given in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). We calculate the reduction in emissions represented by our activity based on 3 key differences to our competitors:

All together, this means we estimate that for every tonne of wood we collect and reuse, the equivalent of about half a tonne of CO2 is saved.

Due to the difficulty of getting accurate figures, our estimate doesn’t take into account the impacts of diverting from the recycling stream to the reuse stream (the energy and transport costs of recycling can be significant), the implications of deforestation and illegal timber in the wood supply chain, or the impacts of burning wood for fuel, which releases a lot of CO2 but is often classed as ‘carbon neutral’ because the same amount of CO2 is absorbed from the atmosphere as the wood is grown. It is also not a complete end-of-life assessment, as the wood we reuse will still eventually either burn or decompose at some point in the future. There are still many unknowns about the role of wood in the carbon economy.

0 years of paid work
0 volunteers trained

Jobs and training

To ensure we keep meeting our objective of changing lives, we record how many people work and volunteer in the network each month.

To help our clients demonstrate the social benefit of using our service, we supply Social and Environmental Impact Reports that estimate the impact of their contribution, given in terms of the network average social outcomes per tonne collected in the given timeframe. In 2023 we created approximately 60 days of training, 3 volunteer positions, and 1 year of employment per 100 tonnes collected. Using this as a baseline, we can estimate a client’s impact on the basis of the tonnage we have collected from them.

Sources

  1. Volume to weight conversion: Based on a sample of 30 collections carried out by Southampton Wood Recycling in 2018
  2. Estimate of 10-40% void space created by wood in skips: Guy Bashford, Envirowise, 2009
  3. Vehicle and production emissions estimates: Abi Frost, Carbon & Climate Change Specialist, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, 2016
  4. Landfill methane emissions estimate: Greenhouse gas reporting – Conversion factors 2023 (DEFRA 2023)
  5. National average wood waste landfill rate: Market Situation Report – Summer 2011, Realising the value of recovered wood (WRAP 2011)
  6. Comparative fuel efficiency: Ford dealership, Dinnages, Worthing

It’s important to us that our measures are transparent and reliable. If you have any questions about our calculations, or if you have a suggestion for how we could improve our reporting, please get in touch.