Happy Earth Day – April 22nd

Earth Day, celebrated annually on April 22, is a reminder to protect the environment, restore damaged ecosystems and live a more sustainable life.

Today, reminds us of how far we’ve come to lessen our impact on the environment as a business.  Over the last few years, we’ve been making business choices within our supply chain to be more environmentally friendly.

Here’s just some of our latest initiatives:

Food waste

As part of our continuing drive to reduce our general waste to minimal levels, we implemented food waste recycling 3 years ago.
When food waste is sent to landfill, it breaks down in the same way but the biogas produced goes straight into the atmosphere and contributes to climate change. Methane is 25 times more damaging that carbon dioxide. Instead, our food waste is now put into an anaerobic digester where micro-organisms break down food waste in the absence of oxygen. This process produces biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide which can then be used to produce heat, electricity or transport fuels. The gas itself is a source of renewable energy exported to the national grid. Anaerobic digestion also creates bio-fertiliser which can be used in farming as a natural fertiliser.

Recycling

As you would expect, we meet standard recycling rates for business. This involves having separate cardboard and paper recycling bins in place throughout the building to significantly reduce the amount of general waste sent to landfill. Two 1100l recycling bins are emptied once a week by a specialist environmental waste company.

Lighting

With lighting being a big energy drain, all the lights at our head office are now on 15-minute timers. So, if there’s no movement or activity, no light and energy is wasted.

Printers

As with the office lighting, all printers go into ‘sleep’ mode when they’re not in use. If printing is absolutely necessary, all printers are set to print on both sides and on recycled paper only. Plus, all of the company’s works orders are now scanned into the system and the paper copies are recycled.

Plastic waste

With plastics waste rightfully high on the public agenda now, the company are also currently reviewing their use of plastics at every level.

Logistics and shipping

Our products are used by companies around the world, so logistics and shipping are a key area of focus. All of our shipments are despatched using recycled boxes. All of our tools are individually boxed in a High-density Polyethylene plastic tube because they are widely recyclable. These boxes are also labelled on so that they can be returned to the company for re-use. By consolidating shipments to reduce our carbon footprint, we have also halved shipping volumes!

Company Cars

All new company vehicles will be electric. We already have 4 in our fleet. We have introduced electric charging stations at our head office too.

These steps forward are only the beginning.  We now have an SGS sustainability team set up to work towards becoming a more sustainable and eco-friendly business. The team are currently reviewing installing solar panels and a new sustainable heating system.