What we can show you, and what we will not say.
Most environmental pages are a list of adjectives. This one is a list of measurements, the dates they were taken and the instruments that took them — and then a list of the things we deliberately do not claim, with the reason for each. The second list is the more useful one.
Scope
This covers UniversalContacts, made by Towpath Digital Ltd. It is not an audited report and we are not claiming it is one: no company of our size is required to publish anything, which is exactly why what is here has to be checkable. What we measured ourselves is first. What our suppliers state is second, marked as theirs.
Where possible, we run on solar
The company is run from a 55ft widebeam on the River Great Ouse, off grid since 19 June 2026, and the team still write the code on the boat the product was built on. When you generate your own electricity you end up measuring it, so these are meter readings rather than estimates.
Those three numbers have evidence behind them: the full readings, with the date and instrument for each. It is a page rather than a footnote because it should be possible to check.
What the measurement actually changed
On the sunniest days of the year the battery still finished the day below its 50 per cent floor. The measurement said the always-on computing was about half the daily budget, so on 28 June 2026 that server was switched off for good and what it did moved to a data centre that runs on renewable power. It is a smaller claim than "we run on solar" and it is the true one.
Our suppliers, as one approach
Servers and production are handled by partners rather than by us, and we manage them as one supply chain rather than as separate arrangements. We do not name them — who makes the cards and who runs the servers are commercial confidences — which means you cannot click through and check these the way you should be able to. Checked on 19 September 2026, and we will send you the source if you ask.
- Our hosting partner runs its data centres on 100 per cent renewable energy
- They have been a certified B Corp since early 2023
- They are a member of 1% for the Planet
- Their UK data centre reports a PUE of 1.1
- Every order we place with the company that makes our cards funds a tree, planted through Ecologi
The tree is worth stating carefully, because the careless version of it was on this site until 16 September 2026. It is not a tree for every card you buy, and the next section explains why that difference is real.
The one environmental argument that is actually ours
A printed card is reprinted when a phone number changes, when somebody moves desk, when a job title is a version out of date. A card that points at a live profile is not: the details move and the card stays in the wallet. That is the only environmental claim on this site that is about the product rather than about a supplier, and it is structural rather than aspirational — it is what the thing does.
The same logic runs through how we ship. Paid orders are held for 24 hours so that one manufacturing order can cover several customers. We built that to get a better price. It also means fewer parcels, and it is the reason for the first line in the next section.
What we do not claim, and why
This is the part we would want to read on somebody else’s site.
“A tree for every card you buy”
A tree is funded for every order we place with them, not for every card you order. Orders are held for 24 hours so that one manufacturing order can cover several customers, which is fewer parcels and a lower price. So on a good day three customers share one tree between them. A version of this line was on the site until 16 September 2026 and it should not have been.
“Carbon neutral”
We have not measured our emissions, so we cannot say we have cancelled them. Two of our suppliers describe themselves this way; that is their claim to make and evidence, not ours to repeat.
“Eco-friendly, sustainable, green”
None of them mean anything on their own, and the CMA Green Claims Code is mostly about exactly these words. Where we have a specific thing we can show you, it is above.
“A lighter footprint than a plastic card”
Probably true of bamboo against PVC, and we have not done the assessment that would let us say so. It was on the bamboo card page as a headline until 16 September 2026.
Social and governance, briefly and honestly
The E above is the strong part. The rest, so that a procurement form can be answered without anybody guessing:
- Governance. Towpath Digital Ltd, company number 16913912, two directors, registered with the ICO. Sub-processors are named in the privacy policy rather than described as “trusted partners”. Account isolation is enforced in the database, not in the application. Details on trust & security.
- Social. Thinner, and we are not going to pad it. A small core team and the specialists we bring in for artwork and print, no community programme to describe. What we can say is how we sell: no dark patterns, no subscription you have to ring up to cancel, and a price on the page. See no subscription.
Checking any of this
We have named neither our hosting partner nor the company that makes the cards, which means the claims above rest on our word plus evidence we hold rather than on a link you can follow. That is a weaker position and we would rather say so than dress it up. If a figure here is out of date, or you want the winter energy numbers when they exist, email hello@universalcontacts.co.uk and you will get an answer from a person.