We set up our first production in the middle of rural Ayrshire in Scotland. It was in this old barn in Craigie Village that gave not only the first part of our trading name but also the birth of our commitment to, and love of, the environment in which we work and live. This is a quiet place, with the sound of sheep grazing in the background, green grass, hardly any traffic and beautiful, undulating, Scottish countryside. It was pure coincidence that John Stockwell was born in ‘Craigie Nursing Home’ in Broughty Ferry near Dundee!

Our Carpets have always been a natural product, using as little energy as possible: wool from free range sheep, silk from silk worms, cotton and linen from the fields, natural latex from rubber trees. All processes are hand controlled to minimise the carbon footprint and minimise waste.

Our carpets and rugs are handmade in the highest quality and have an extremely long life. They are, in the main, resold and re-used. Indeed many carpets we have supplied for offices and hotels get re-used in less luxurious establishments. This makes a substantial reduction to energy consumption compared to conventional and even machine woven floorcoverings. The method of hand made production does not affect the air quality and we ensure that the distribution and installation methods are also environmentally friendly, re-using packaging as much as we can.

Craigie Stockwell are using ISO 14002 guidelines as far as they are applicable to this method of manufacture in our new factory production centres.

We bring our respect for the environment even to our office desks, where our policy is ‘if you can view it on the screen’ don’t print it! We send the bulk of our communications by email: even artwork and instructions are submitted to our factories by email and web. We all enjoy our policy of working without electric lights if they are not required and of ensuring all power is only used when absolutely necessary and we recycle everything we can.

John Stockwell supports Staro (www.staro.org) to help preserve the Amazon rainforest.