Sustainability as a competitive lever: How Ulster Carpets is reducing impact while protecting quality
Ulster Carpets has been operating since 1938, building its reputation as a fourth-generation family business rooted in craftsmanship, quality and local manufacturing.
Based in Portadown, County Armagh, the company produces bespoke Axminster woven carpets for hospitality and marine markets across the UK, Europe and the USA, alongside a smaller residential offering.
As Carol Howson, Sustainability & Product Engineer at Ulster Carpets, explains: “We do primarily bespoke design work, for Axminster woven carpets. And we serve the hospitality and marine markets in the UK, Europe, and the USA.”
But while the business has deep heritage, its sustainability programme is far from static. Today, sustainability is shaped by customer expectations, legal requirements and long-standing company values.
Carol adds: “Our sustainability program is built around customer requirements, the ever-evolving legal requirements that are placed on us all the time and continually developing.”
For Ulster Carpets, sustainability is not separate from product quality. It sits at the heart of how the business defines long-term value. Carol explains: “For us, the crux of our sustainability is to make products that are high quality and built to last.”
Cutting carbon through practical investment
Ulster Carpets has made significant progress in reducing operational emissions. The business set ambitious 2025 targets, including a 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions.
Carol explains: “We did achieve a 48.5 percent reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions against the target of 50, so we weren’t far away.”
A major driver was the company’s move to renewable electricity.
“For us, this was largely due to a move to green electricity,” Carol says. “That helped take us a long way towards that target.”
Alongside this, the business invested in practical energy-saving projects across its operations, including heat recovery in the dye house, LED lighting, upgraded boilers, more efficient heating systems, compressor upgrades and battery-powered materials handling equipment.
“We did a lot of, sort of, big-ticket projects like this,” Carol explains. “It did require, obviously, a lot of investment, but we were at a point where these things needed to be done anyway.”
This is where sustainability becomes a business advantage. By aligning necessary operational upgrades with carbon reduction targets, Ulster Carpets has been able to modernise infrastructure while reducing impact.
Turning waste into value
Waste reduction has also become a major area of progress. Ulster Carpets has achieved zero waste to landfill for several years, supported by recycling, reuse across the group and partnerships through International Synergies.
But one initiative stands out.
Carol explains that the business is able to take yarn waste and carpet waste and “turn it into a felt underlay product”.
She describes this as “the jewel in our crown, really. From a sustainability point of view, because that has really helped reduce our waste, we’re able to turn it into a complimentary product that supports our core offering.”
This approach demonstrates circular economy principles in practice: waste is not just diverted, but transformed into a useful product with commercial potential.
Carol adds: “The waste we do produce that we can then turn into something else is obviously another income stream there for us.”
It has also opened new opportunities. “There’s a lot of options for product development in that underlay product as well, so it’s opening new markets for us.”
Navigating material complexity
Ulster Carpets has used wool since the beginning, a choice rooted in both performance and sustainability.
“We have been using wool in our carpets since day one,” Carol explains.
For the business, wool offers functional benefits including durability, stain resistance and anti-static properties. But communicating the sustainability value of natural materials is not always straightforward, particularly in a market where synthetic materials are often promoted through recyclability claims.
Carol is clear about the challenge: “It’s like anything, it’s not as straightforward as it appears.”
She explains that while many synthetic carpet components may technically be recyclable, the reality is often more complex.
“Whilst a lot of components of synthetic carpets are recyclable, it’s not actually being done, because it’s very difficult to do.”
This is where customer education becomes critical. She shares: “What we’re trying to do is really help educate our customers about the reality.”
For Ulster Carpets, the message is grounded in product integrity, natural materials and longevity.
“We firmly believe that the more natural materials that we can use, the better, because the more natural a carpet, the more sustainable it is.”
Commercial value and customer expectations
Sustainability is increasingly influencing customer conversations, particularly in hospitality and high-end markets.
Carol explains: “Our customers do appreciate what we’re doing. I do get to talk to quite a few of them, which is quite nice in my role.”
The company’s customer base includes high-end brands, and expectations are rising.
“We work with a lot of high-end brands, and they’re a lot more aware,” Carol says.
However, sustainability does not remove commercial pressures. Cost remains a central factor in decision-making.
“For a lot of customers, cost is still the deciding factor, and quite often, the more sustainable option isn’t the cheapest option.”
That tension is familiar to many organisations. Sustainability can strengthen market positioning, but it still needs to operate within commercial realities.
Carol sums it up clearly: “Yes, what we’re doing is working, and it is paying off. But… cost… most things come down to cost at the end of the day.”
Building capability across the business
Ulster Carpets benefits from strong senior-level support for sustainability.
“I came to the business whenever there was already a very clear understanding that sustainability was really important,” Carol explains.
That leadership buy-in has enabled major investment in energy, carbon and waste initiatives. But the next stage is about embedding sustainability more deeply across the organisation.
“Initially, it’s kind of a top-down approach,” Carol says. “From now on, I think my focus, or what I want to do, is drill down further towards the shop floor level and start building from the bottom up.”
For Carol, employee engagement is essential to future progress. She says: “It comes down to education and awareness and letting people understand, sort of, what our mission is, why we’re doing this.”
Carol adds: “Quite often the people on the floor are the people who know the best way, or have better ideas, or continuous improvement projects in mind. So I think getting everyone involved is absolutely imperative.”
Learning as you go
Carol is open about the learning curve involved in stepping into a sustainability role.
“When I started this job, I had no previous practical experience in the things that I’m doing now,” she says.
Her background in product development helped, but areas such as carbon accounting and strategy planning were new.
“When it came to things like carbon accounting, or strategy planning, or all of that stuff was all completely new to me.”
Training helped create structure.
“I was very grateful when I came across the Institute of Sustainability Studies. I enrolled on the Diploma in Business Sustainability course, which has been really beneficial at sort of breaking everything down into manageable chunks and creating a structure and a journey through it, a road map.”
For many professionals, this reflects the reality of sustainability work today. Roles are evolving quickly, and many people are learning while building systems in real time.
As Carol puts it: “You learn as you go, nobody has all the answers.”
Looking ahead
Ulster Carpets is now working on a new five-year sustainability strategy, building on the progress already made.
“We’re working on a new, sort of, five-year plan for our sustainability strategy,” Carol explains.
Future priorities include energy and carbon, product development, changing legislation and stronger customer communication.
Carol also wants sustainability to become more visible across the business and externally.
“We’ve done a lot of really good things over the years, but we’re not really talking about it, we’re not shouting about it, we are very much in the background.”
The aim is not only to reduce impact, but to support business growth.
Carol describes it as “using that sort of sustainability as a benchmark to get us out there with the much bigger organisations that we’re competing with.”
A practical takeaway
For organisations just beginning their sustainability journey, Carol’s advice is simple: “don’t be scared, just, just start.”
She encourages businesses to recognise what is already happening internally, from energy management to waste reduction and continuous improvement.
“There’s so much knowledge and experience and good work already happening in our organisation, and it’s extracting that.”
Her final advice is practical and honest: “Get some training… learn as you go. What is it, eat the elephant one bite at a time.”
Ulster Carpets’ experience shows that sustainability in manufacturing is rarely simple. But with clear values, practical investment, employee engagement and a focus on long-term value, it can become a powerful lever for efficiency, resilience and competitive advantage.
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Dedicated to harnessing the power of storytelling to raise awareness, demystify, and drive behavioural change, Bronagh works as the Communications & Content Manager at the Institute of Sustainability Studies. Alongside her work with ISS, Bronagh contributes articles to several news media publications on sustainability and mental health.
