Anglian Dog Works journey to greener pawprints
How ADW came to be suppliers of quality eco-friendly dog training equipment
As a dog trainer near Cambridge, I had a demand for place boards from clients who found them a useful training tool during classes. In September 2020, my partner and I started making small batches of place boards in our workshop.
When lockdown hit, we continued to sell place boards for dog training online. Sales increased significantly and the number of place boards we were making rose. Buying a large amount of new artificial grass, often imported from abroad, did not make us feel good from an environmental standpoint, instead, we started seeking an eco-option.
We found that professional venues and events, lift nearly new artificial grass often after a single use or a set number of years for insurance purposes. Due to the difficultly in separating the material into raw components, after use, artificial grass is usually destined for landfill. Collaborating with a local tradesperson Anglian Dog Works have been able to develop a unique reconditioning process so that instead the artificial grass starts a new life as the recycled surface on the dog training place board.
It is Anglian Dog Works’ ethos to make environmentally friendly and responsible choices when we choose materials, which means when sourcing raw materials to manufacture from we considering the following:
- Is the material renewable?
- Is the material recycled?
- Is the material reclaimed?
- Is the material repurposed?
- Is the material sustainable?
Therefore, when deciding how to make a dog place board we chose for the place boards platforms and tops to be constructed from renewable timber, and the board to be covered in non-slip reclaimed artificial grass.
This makes all our dog place boards for sale an eco-friendly choice!
Anglian Dog Works use green energy in our workshop and office, plus we avoid single-use plastics.
We are currently developing more eco-friendly gundog products which will soon be added to the range, including leads and whistles!
Next time you buy pet products, we challenge you to ask yourself the same 5 questions to make more eco-friendly choices.