Q INTERVIEWWITH BLUM &A Matthew Glanfield
Blum - Sustainability Partner
Sustainability has been at the heart of Blum UK for decades, not as a trend, but as a long standing principle that shapes how the company designs, operates and innovates. BKU caught up with the BKU Awards’ Sustainability Partner, as Matt Broughton spoke with Blum UK Managing Director, Matthew Glanfield.
Why have you chosen to partner with the BKU Awards as the Sustainability Partner? For us, this was a natural fit. Sustainability has been part of how Blum operates for a long time, so partnering with the BKU Awards as Sustainability Partner made sense. What stood out is that the awards are making a conscious effort to operate responsibly as a certified carbon neutral event. Just as important is the audience; the BKU Awards bring together people from across the KBB industry who are making real decisions every day. For us, it’s a chance to be part of that conversation, share what we’re doing and, just as importantly, listen.
Can you tell us a bit about Blum’s various activities towards sustainability? At Blum, sustainability is part of how we run the business, not something separate. A clear example is product durability. We design fittings to last the lifetime of the furniture, often 20 years or more, which helps reduce replacement and waste. Across our operations, we focus on continuous improvement, from a recycling rate of around 96% to increasing renewable energy use and reducing emissions across our operations and supply chain. Alongside environmental impact, we place
equal importance on social responsibility. In the UK, that includes practical steps at our Milton
Keynes site, such as a wildflower garden and vegetable patch to support biodiversity. We also work with local organisations, contributing time, materials and resources to support community projects and reduce waste. For me, these actions do not need to be large, but they do need to be meaningful.
Please tell us about the Environmental Management System that was implemented in 1997. We’ve been working to ISO 14001 since 1997, which shows how long this has been part of our thinking. It gives us structure. It means we’re not
6 BKU JULY 2026
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