A healthy, net zero carbon future
A commitment to sustainability is core to our business and we have made significant progress against our product, planet, and people targets this year. We are ahead of our plan on low-carbon products, at 62.1% of total sales, putting us well on the way to our goal of 70% by 2025. We also increased the percentage of recycled plastics used in our factories to 59.7% overall, and achieved a percentage of 66.7% in the UK. Our people took part in twelve community-led initiatives over the course of the year, and we are evolving our people strategy with a new People Reporting framework being developed to further engage and support our most important asset.
Engineer sustainable solutions
Low-carbon sales
43.0%
in 2014
62.1%
in 2021
70.0%
in 2025
We are the fourth building materials company to receive the Green Economy Mark
Single use plastic was removed from the packaging of over
1m
products
2040
net zero target
Our low-carbon sales KPI
Sales of low-carbon products continue to grow. This year we were awarded the Green Economy Mark.
This year’s acquisitions of ClimaRad, Klimatfabriken, Rtek and ERI Corporation are all 100% low-carbon sales. New product development expected to continue to grow low‑carbon sales.
62.1% of sales were low-carbon products in FY21 (61.2% target)
63.4% target in FY22
» Read about Net zero carbon future
» Read about Employee engagement
Improve environmental performance
Percentage of recycled plastics processed
59.7%
in 2021
90.0%
in 2025
3
Energy efficiency improvements to three of our facilities in 2021
60.8%
decrease in carbon intensity since 2014
Our management Sustainability Committee includes all local business leaders in our policy development
Our plastics KPI
We made good progress in the year. The final figure for plastics in our manufacturing was lower than anticipated. This was due to an overall reduction of high-plastic PVC in our material mix due to supply issues.
However, the UK achieved 66.7% (with 100% of the PVC recycled and 57.9% HIPS for the year).
ABS trials are now completed with positive results and a new alternative materials group has been set up to work through conversion at a part level.
59.7% of plastic from recycled sources in FY21 (63.6% target)
70.2% target in FY22 and we are confident of our long-term objective of 90%
» Read more about Energy efficiency
Connect people together
Accident frequency rate
0.20
Reportable incidents in 2021
0.61
Minor incidents in 2021
Ambition remains zero harm
We hold bi-yearly employee engagement sessions with the CEO,
CFO and a Board representative
12
community-led local
initiatives in 2021
2021
We are introducing a new People Reporting Framework in 2021
Keeping everyone safe
Unfortunately, we had six reportable accidents in 2021, an increase from one in 2020. We have put a new accident reporting process and review structure in place that includes the CEO being immediately informed of any reportable accidents. This year, we have moved to reporting the number of accidents per 100,000 hours worked, rather than a single number of accidents overall. In their working life, a person works approximately 100,000 hours. This will give us greater transparency and wider context to our reporting as we continue to grow, and will allow us to set meaningful improvement targets across the business.
0 reportable accidents remains our FY22 ambition
"I am pleased to assume Board oversight responsibility for Volution’s sustainability strategy and targets. Our new management Sustainability Committee is already helping to align our businesses units behind our purpose – healthy air, sustainably."
Amanda Mellor, Independent Non-Executive Director