Taking an Environmentally Conscious Approach to Retail

Our mission to provide a ‘greener’ product offering all started because of feedback from our wider shop team. We are now committed to minimising our environmental impact as a retailer. It is an on-going process, one which we continue to work on with every new supplier and every new product we introduce. We take the viewpoints of our colleagues and our customers to heart and love to hear feedback on how we are doing and how we can do better.

Printed Textiles

Print to order is an environmentally sustainable process, eliminating excess stock that may be sent to landfill. By offering many of our textiles as print to order products we reduce our physical stockholding and minimise our waste. As well as only creating stock that is called for and no extra, printing to order eliminates extra travel by shipping direct to the consumer. Traditionally stock is produced by a supplier and shipped to a merchant before being sent to a customer. By eliminating the middle journey, we are taking small steps to cut down on our carbon emissions.

We did not just find anybody to produce our print to order products, we work with a UK based printer who is dedicated to sustainable processes. Our printer has Soil Association accreditation, ensuring that dye waste is disposed of in a safe way, with no harm to the environment. Our printer produces both our print to order textiles and the textiles that we hold stock of and sell both online and in store. Everything from aprons, tea towels and cushion covers, to sweatshirts and t-shirts for children and adults are printed.

Our tote bags, tea towels, aprons, purses, and cushion covers are all sewn in the same factory in Wales where they are printed. Our t-shirts and sweatshirts are produced in several locations, all which are regularly inspected to meet fair working standards. These are then shipped to the UK for final preparation and printing. Our print to order Stanley/Stella t-shirts are produced using a fully sustainable process, from start to finish.

Finding a Home for Samples and Damaged Stock

We do not dispose of any damaged or returned item where it can be resold or donated. We do the same for our sample textiles, where we can, we offer these to Globe colleagues or donate items so that they do not end up in landfill. Recently, we received a batch of mis-printed pens that we were unable to sell. Instead of disposing of these or returning them to the supplier to dispose of, we reached out to our Globe community to fill the stationery cabinets around the theatre.

Print to Order Posters

We have a small selection of exclusive posters available to purchase in store, and a larger selection of print to order posters available to purchase online. Our posters are all printed in Kent, England and include a selection of past production posters and newly created graphic prints highlighting Shakespeare’s most famous quotes.

Our posters are printed using inkjet printers and in small runs and single sheets. Our printer uses inks which have lower levels of volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) and continue the pursuit of cleaner, more sustainable printing.

Cutting Out Plastic

We are continuing to work towards eliminating plastic in our store. Our pens are produced using bioplastic, PLA is a compostable bioplastic derived from plant sugars. PLA stands for polylactic acid. It can be made from any sugar, such as corn starch, cassava, sugar cane, or sugar beet.

Our children’s swords and daggers are made of wood grown in a managed forest in Bavaria. Even our sweets are offered in glass jars which can be washed and reused when the sweets are finished.

Buying Local

We work with suppliers close to home. Our jewellery and our printed posters are produced in Kent, our plaster skulls are produced in a studio just outside London, and our textiles are printed in Wales. We try to work with suppliers in the UK as much as possible.

Finding a second life for used props and costumes

Working with the wider Globe, we have begun offering used props and costumes to the public, where they are not needed to be re-purposed for upcoming productions. By offering these items to the public we can give a new life to these original props, creating space for more exciting pieces to be created. These original theatre props and costumes are offered when they become available on an ad hoc basis as much of what is seen on the stage is stored for future use.

We are not just offering completed props for sale, but also set test pieces and even planks of wood used to extend the stage during certain productions. We have even begun offering sawdust from our carpenter's workshop in the bowels of The Globe! For £2.50 customers can take home a piece of The Globe set or a section of the stage when it was being constructed, all in tiny fragments that would have otherwise been discarded of.

Reusing packaging

We are extending our commitment to reducing waste to our packaging. We recycle packaging that we receive from our suppliers to package our online orders. From cardboard boxes to paper and bioplastic fillers, we keep what we receive and re-use it where we can. We buy what we need to be able to pack products securely but rely heavily on saved packaging to pad out our deliveries. We have enlisted the help of the entire Globe staff in saving the packaging they receive to help us package our online orders.

An On-going Process

We continue to work with local suppliers who are dedicated to producing top quality products in an environmentally responsible manner. We know that there is always more to do, and we are committed to continuing our pursuit of a greener and more sustainable product offering.