It started with a skip
Walk down almost any street in the UK and you'll pass a skip. Inside: rubble, packaging, and — far too often — perfectly good doors and windows on their way to landfill. Most of us don't think twice about it.
Joseph, our founder, did. He was working as a plumbing apprentice in 2014 when a customer pointed at a set of modern uPVC French doors in his skip and said "if you want them, take them." Joseph and a mate loaded them into a van, cleaned them up, listed them on eBay that night, and sold them the next day at a healthy profit.
Visiting a local door fabricator soon after, he saw a mountain of surplus doors and windows destined for landfill — joinery that had been mismeasured, ex-display, or simply over-ordered. That was the eureka moment. He left plumbing behind and founded Green Doors with a simple mission: give every door a second chance.
Friends and family thought I was delusional and urged me to stick to plumbing. I knew I could make a difference.
From a single garage to 30,000 sq ft
Joseph's parents' back garden quickly started to look like a building site. He rented a single garage at the bottom of the road — full within a week. Then a 3,500 sq ft barn unit in Luton. Today, Green Doors operates out of a 30,000 sq ft warehouse stocked with thousands of brand new, ex-display and pre-loved doors and windows.
The first few years were brutal. Juggling collections, deliveries, cleaning, repairs, sales and paperwork meant 16-hour days, seven days a week. Customer feedback kept Joseph going long enough for the business to find its feet.
A family-run team
In 2015, Joseph reached out to an old work colleague, Aaron — today our logistics manager — who came on board as our first driver. He was sceptical there'd be enough work for a full week. Within months he was working seven days a week too.
That same year, Joseph's mum left her job of ten years to take over the paperwork. Levi, his sister's partner and a developer, joined in 2017 to build systems and operations. Lauren, Joseph's sister, left commercial property management in central London to help run day-to-day operations. Elena, Joseph's partner, joined in 2023 as Growth Marketing Manager. Even Joseph's dad has been coaxed out of retirement and now works part-time as one of our "Door Doctors".
Why this matters
Roughly a third of global waste comes from the construction industry. Every year, more than 10 billion doors are produced — and a significant proportion never even make it out of the factory because they were built slightly to the wrong specifications.
Doors last a long time when they're cared for: uPVC 20–30 years, composite 30+, aluminium 30–50, and timber 50–100 years or more. Most are scrapped long before that. Green Doors exists to extend those lifespans — by finding new homes for joinery that's still got decades of use left in it.
Recognition
In 2024, Green Doors won two awards at the Small Business Awards — Net Hero and Small Business of the Year — and Joseph was shortlisted for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. We've been featured in publications, podcasts and radio across the UK.
See the full list on our media & awards page.