Sustainability – key initiatives

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 70.1% of total sales, putting us well on the way to our goal of 75% by 2026. We also increased the percentage of recycled plastics used in our factories to 76.2% overall. This year we have also further developed our People initiative by completing 17,781 hours of training. 

"Good progress was achieved with our sustainability initiatives, with the team developing innovative strategies to increase the utilisation and availability of recycled plastic, and revenue from our low-carbon products increased organically and through acquisitions. These are great examples of cross functional effort and initiative. Our carbon intensity has fallen again, and whilst we fell short of the stretching absolute emissions target for the year, our colleagues across the world are engaged in energy efficiency initiatives."

Ronnie George
Chief Executive Officer

United Kingdom
 

Initiatives delivered

  • New injection Moulding Machine – 30% more energy efficient than previous generation
  • New Energy efficient Compressors at Reading, Crawley and Swindon
  • New Energy efficient electric forklifts replacing gas
  • EV chargers installed at West Molesey, Swindon & Dudley
  • New direct shipment workbench reducing trucks movements between factories

Upcoming actions

  • In-house warehousing to yield cost savings and reduce inefficient logistics
  • Investment in tooling and value engineering to reduce material usage
  • Continued roll out of low carbon company cars
  • All UK sites will to be “Zero‑Landfill” by Dec-23

Continental Europe
 

Initiatives delivered

  • Electric heatpumps installed at ClimaRad, which in combination with the already installed solar panels has enabled disconnection from the gas grid, savings costs and emissions
  • A new in-house Sheetmetal production facility in Bosnia removing truck movements from suppliers
  • Waste plastics miller enabling recycling and re-use of waste plastic
  • Inventer removed unnecessary foil wrapper from spare filters replaced with cardboard
  • ERI new IT logistics software developed internally to enable full truck delivery
  • Ventilair 20% employees commuting by bike vs 10% target

Upcoming actions

  • Solar panels in Bosnia facility
  • Conversion from oil heating in three Nordic factories to wood pellets/heat pump
  • Larger Grinder for re-use of scrap metal and other materials

Australasia
 

Initiatives delivered

  • Re-useable and recyclable pallet boxes with re-useable and recyclable Velcro pallet wrap replacing shrink wrap and single use pallet boxes. For internal use, the Initial investment will pay back over time and save waste
  • Improved Deliver in Full on Time (DIFOT) reducing additional multiple and unnecessary shipments
  • Twilight switches and LED high bay lighting installed in Australia
  • EVs acquired, on site charging point installed
  • Plastic packaging removal: Simx polystyrene 78% complete, Ventair ceiling fans 100% complete

Upcoming actions

  • Remaining Twilight switches and LED high bay lighting to be installed in NZ
  • More EVs ordered
  • Continued development of product portfolio to transition to EC fans (Smart vent complete by 2024) and ceiling fans to DC (up to 50% in past 12 months)