Case study
How Designworks Collective built credible climate action into the business of gifting
Gifting & consumer goods
SME
Reduce & Restore
Ecologi Certification
Designworks Collective is an owner-led gifting and consumer-goods business built on great design and a strong sense of ethics, the home of brands including Paddywax Candles. Headquartered in Nashville, TN, with a UK office in Bath and offices in Australia and Europe, the company designs and sells products through independent retail, direct-to-consumer and mass-market channels. In just over three years of working with Ecologi, Designworks has measured its carbon footprint, cut emissions at source, funded a global portfolio of climate projects, becoming one of the first businesses to earn Ecologi’s “Committed” certification in the process.
At a glance
About Designworks Collective
Designworks Collective brings together a family of gift and lifestyle brands, each with its own identity: Paddywax candles and home fragrance, Designworks Ink stationery, Gentlemen's Hardware tools and outdoor goods, Here's How glass and barware, Hijinx gifts, Studio Tot child care items and toys and Speckle & Spot pet products. Its Paddywax Candle Bar adds an experiential, in-store dimension, hosting candle-pouring workshops in the UK and US and offering an in-store refill service for used candle vessels - 8,717 vessels were refilled across the US stores in 2025, with a further 6,183 in 2026 to date. Running through the whole portfolio is a single conviction: designing products people love while working to leave a lighter footprint, a commitment the company's owner reviews with the sustainability team every fortnight.
Location
US head office based in Nashville, TN, with offices in the UK, Australia, and Netherlands
Company size
~140 employees (SME)
Industry
Gifting & consumer goods - design and manufacture
Services used
Ecologi Zero carbon footprinting; carbon avoidance, removals & tree planting; Ecologi Certification (Committed)
Overall climate journey
✓ Calculated carbon footprint (Scopes 1, 2 & 3)
✓ Set near- and long-term reduction targets (SBTi-aligned)
✓ Reduced emissions
✓ Funded avoidance, removals & tree planting
✓ Ecologi Certified - Committed
The issue
For Designworks, sustainability had always mattered, but as the business grew, good intentions needed to be backed by hard data. The immediate catalyst came from its largest mass-market customers in the US, including Target and Walmart, which required the company to disclose its carbon footprint through CDP in order to keep supplying them. Sustainability sat within the regulatory and compliance function, alongside testing, factory audits and packaging, and the team recognised it needed dedicated, specialist capability to do the job properly rather than as an afterthought.
The challenges
As a lean business, Designworks was juggling many roles across a small team, with limited time and internal resources to navigate the technical world of carbon accounting. Any investment also had to stand up to scrutiny from the company’s owner, who wanted clarity on cost and commitment before proceeding. With customers increasingly asking for verified data, the team needed numbers it could defend - building detailed Scope 1, 2 and 3 picture across a complex, global supply chain without cutting corners or risking greenwashing.
The solution
Designworks built its climate capability from the ground up, choosing Ecologi as its partner in January 2025.
Building capability in-house
Rather than outsource the work, Designworks brought in a dedicated sustainability specialist, initially as an internship role. After a highly successful first nine months in which the team met all of its first-year goals, the role was made permanent and its scope widened to cover ESG, factory compliance and engagement and extended producer responsibility alongside carbon footprinting.
A partner chosen for clarity and simplicity
The company’s head of sales first spotted Ecologi after seeing a fellow candle brand use its on-site impact widgets, and the simplicity and visual clarity of the platform stood out immediately - important for a gifting business where presentation is everything. Selecting credits was straightforward and flexible, with projects sourced to fit, and measurement and funding sitting under one roof.
Ecologi’s 3Rs framework
Following Ecologi’s 3Rs framework enabled Designworks to take a structured measured approach:
REDUCE - Measuring the full footprint, then reducing
Designworks has now completed three carbon footprints. Working with Ecologi made the process far more structured - moving from whatever data was to hand to a rigorous approach that captured Scopes 1 and 2 plus four Scope 3 categories in its first year, and four more this year. Reductions have followed: the company cut its Scope 1 emissions by around 90% year on year, largely by consolidating older warehousing into a single, far more energy-efficient facility, supported by better data and a sharper focus on commuting and business travel. Designworks has also invested in its own sites, installing solar panels and EV charging at its head office.
RESTORE - Funding a balanced, global portfolio
Alongside reducing, Designworks funds climate action exclusively through Ecologi, deliberately building a balanced portfolio of avoidance, removals and reforestation projects in the regions where it operates. Its impact is tracked transparently on its Ecologi profile.
REPORT - Telling the story, inside and out
Designworks makes its progress visible. It shares its sustainability story on its own website - most recently through a refreshed Environment & Climate section - using Ecologi's communications toolkit, turning the work into something customers and staff can see. Last year it also ran a half-hour lunch and learn for all staff, with support from the Ecologi team, covering why the company is taking sustainability action, how it is going about it, and its future goals. It went down well enough that Designworks now plans to run it every year as a company-wide sustainability update, backed by an internal sustainability communication channel.
The results
To date, Designworks has funded the avoidance of 2,746 tonnes of CO₂e, the removal of a further 158 tonnes, and the planting of 200 trees through Ecologi. Just as importantly, the work has become a commercial asset. With verified data in hand, the team completed the CDP disclosure its US customers required and can now answer sustainability questionnaires with confidence - helping open doors with major UK retailers, including Marks & Spencer and Waitrose, which now stock its candles.
Internally, the partnership has boosted the team’s confidence in customer conversations and even featured in recent recruitment, with new hires citing the company’s sustainability story as a reason they applied. Designworks has embedded that story across its website, its catalogues, an annual staff “lunch and learn” and an internal sustainability channel.
The company is now one of the first to achieve Ecologi’s “Committed” 3Rs certification, recognising businesses at the start of a credible, structured climate journey. Looking ahead, its focus turns to Scope 3 and its supply chain - working with suppliers across its biggest categories, from candles and stationery to ceramics and cotton - as it continues to measure, reduce and fund with integrity.
