TDP turned 35 years old on 1 May this year and it seems a good time to reflect on our journey. Building a business that has stood the test of time is something I am genuinely proud of. That longevity is significant, but what gives me the most satisfaction is that our success has come down to staying true to our values. We have grown and evolved by outing sustainability at the heart of everything we do by having a respect for nature, a conviction that resources should be valued, and a belief that business has a responsibility to understand and manage its impacts.
I have been engaged with environmentalism since my late teens. Studying photography and graphics in 1977, I was already interested in wildlife, landscape and the outdoors. Around the same time, a young physicist named Jonathan Shanklin joined the British Antarctic Survey, tasked with checking ozone data from equipment stationed in Antarctica. His findings, published in 1985, revealed a hole in the ozone layer that sent shockwaves around the world What followed demonstrated that when people work together and take the evidence seriously, meaningful change is possible. The 1987 Montreal Protocol committed nations to freezing production of CFCs, and the ozone layer is now steadily repairing.
It was also in 1987 that the Great Storm tore through the south of England, devastating ecosystems and stripping Kew Gardens of a significant part of its historic tree collection. I had by that point been working with a client distributing Plantex, the first non-chemical weed control fabric of its kind. When Kew began replanting, they needed a solution to protect young trees during their critical early years. After rigorous trials, Plantex was selected, becoming the first product to receive a commercial endorsement in the Royal Botanic Gardens’ 300 year history. It was possible for businesses to offer genuine environmental alternatives and people were receptive to them.
From distribution to manufacturing
TDP was founded two years later to bring products like Plantex to a wider market. The underlying idea was to take specialist products developed for professionals and make them accessible to everyone. Other products followed, each with a practical purpose. We started selling Garden Fleece is smaller rolls so that home gardeners could protect their plants from harsh weather and pests without using harmful chemicals. I later developed Mortar Fleece
after noticing builders using plastic sacks to protect freshly laid mortar. From around 2003 we also began distributing Sustainable Urban Drainage systems, addressing the flooding that was already becoming a more visible consequence of a changing climate.
Each of those steps helped us evolve as a business committed to helping manage environmental impact. The real pivot came in 2011. We discovered that a manufacturer supplying components for our drainage range was using recycled plastic in its production. The penny dropped. If waste plastic could be processed into robust profiles, what else could be made from it? We started with a bench. It was harder to get right than we anticipated, but it was a genuine turning point. We had moved from distribution into design and manufacturing, working with 100% recycled British plastic waste as our primary material.
Meanwhile, the environmental movement was gaining momentum. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had been building its evidence base since its first report in 1990. The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 set binding emissions targets. The Paris Agreement in 2015 brought 196 nations together. Climate science was becoming harder to dismiss and the understanding of what business needed to do in response was deepening year on year.
First-hand experience
Anna and I wanted to see for ourselves the reality of the environmental crisis. Over the past decade we have taken part in citizen science projects that have taken us to places that bring the scale of the challenge into sharp focus. In Antarctica, working alongside scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, we helped gather data on atmospheric conditions and microplastic contamination in waters that feel utterly remote. We watched glaciers that have existed for thousands of years retreating at a rate that is now measurable from one visit to the next.
In the Indian Ocean, we worked with marine biologists to repair coral reefs damaged by bleaching events driven by rising sea temperatures. It is careful, painstaking work, attaching fragments of living coral to underwater frames and giving them the conditions to regrow.
Back home I have tracked whales I have seen on my travels through the HappyWhale citizen science app. After decades of catastrophic decline, whale numbers are finally starting to recover recovering, proving that conservation efforts, sustained over time through collaboration, can make a measurable difference.
These experiences have opened my eyes to the scale of the problem at hand but at the same time they have reinforced my belief that there are solutions. There is a lot of hard work and innovation going into tackling these issues and businesses have a key role to play.
At TDP, our role is a modest one. We take plastic waste that would otherwise end up in landfill or our waterways and turn it into furniture designed to last for decades. At the end of its life, the material can re-enter the value chain and be recycled again. We report on our emissions, we work with our supply chain on responsible sourcing, and we try to understand and manage our impacts as transparently as we can. In 2023 we were honoured to receive the King’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development, which was a recognition we were genuinely proud of, and which has given us a platform to share what we have learned with others.
The challenges ahead are significant. Yet there is cause for optimism. Attitudes have shifted considerably even in the time we have been making furniture. Circular thinking is gaining ground, and waste is increasingly understood as a resource. Young people entering the workforce are choosing employers on the basis of their values.
Thirty-five years is a long time to be in business. What I have come to believe, more firmly than ever, is that managing resources responsibly, embracing circularity and understanding your impacts is not at odds with building something sustainable in the commercial sense. When people come together and commit to doing things differently, good things follow. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to the success of TDP and shared our vision. I am very excited to see what our next chapter has in store.
Rob Barlow MBE, TDP Co-Founder