Environmental Impact
It is clear sustained action is required to address climate change and manufacturing businesses have a responsibility to mitigate their environmental impact.
Our approach
We want to support the journey to addressing climate change and we are working hard to mitigate our own impact on the environment.
G&H is proud that many of our products are supporting the cleaner, more efficient generation and use of energy across a range of applications.
We are also working hard to mitigate our own impact on the environment. Our investments in solar panels and voltage optimisation systems are already lowering our greenhouse gas emissions and in the UK all of our purchased electricity now comes from clean, renewable sources. Our Executive management team have developed a plan with the objective of delivering annual reductions in the energy used by the Group and therefore its carbon equivalent emissions and are on track to achieve net zero scope 1 & 2 emissions by 2035.
During FY24 we achieved a 14.3% reduction in our carbon intensity measure. Our programmes to transition our US sites to purchase all of their electricity needs from clean, renewable sources is in our carbon intensity measure. Our programmes to transition our US sites to purchase all of their electricity needs from clean, renewable sources is s gaining momentum following our UK sites which have already achieved thatmilestone.
We continue to maintain links with other companies within our sector and seek to learn from them regarding initiatives to reduce energy consumption. We use the structure of ISO 50001 – energy management systems as best practise - to help us identify where the greatest reductions in energy use can be achieved.
Building upon last year’s ISO14001 – Environmental Management – accreditation at our Ilminster and Torquay sites, in FY2024 we attained the same accreditation for our Ashford, UK and Keene, NH sites. Keeping this momentum going, we have identified two further target sites, Plymouth and Rochester, NY state for accreditation in FY2025.
Our Health, Safety and Environmental function has developed a standardised approach to Environmental Management Systems, which has enabled the deployment to new sites to be accomplished more quickly than originally planned and that same model will be applied to any future acquisitions made by G&H. In FY2024 we have extended our measurement of the Group’s environmental impact to include the monthly recording of waste types and water consumption.
Risk management
We include climate and environmental risks as part of our overall risk management processes. The Group risk register is reviewed by the Audit Committee and the Board. We have identified environment, sustainability and climate change as a principal risk for the Group given the reputational risk to the Group if we fail to deliver upon our sustainability agenda as well the physical risk that climate change poses to our operations.
Environmental and sustainability governance
Environmental and Sustainability Governance Oversight and governance of our environmental strategy and performance is managed through our Sustainability Committee, chaired by our non-executive director Susan Searle. The introduction of our Board’s Sustainability Committee supported by its Sub-Committee which is staffed with representatives from across the Group has provided further momentum and awareness within our business of not only environmental matters but also our broader sustainability agenda.
An internal framework has been developed that encompasses all these factors under the banner of the ‘G&H Sustain’ initiative. We are also extending our work in the area of environmental sustainability into our supply chain. For a number of years G&H has partnered with Assent Compliance to proactively engage with our supply chain. This year we incorporated the Supply Chain ESG Module as a means of extending our ESG awareness throughout our value chain.
Investing to reduce our emissions
We continue to invest in our sites to help them reduce their emissions:
- Our Torquay facility has a 297 kWp solar PV system installed which provides ~18% of the site’s electricity needs along with a Voltage Optimisation System. Having switched gas heating to electrical alternatives the site has become the first within the G&H Group to be net neutral for Scope 1 & 2 GHG emissions.
- Our Ilminster facility has a 302 kWp solar PV system which provides ~7% of the site’s electricity needs and this year introduced a Voltage Optimisation System
- Our Ashford facility benefits from two phases of Solar PV, phase 1 – 150Kwp, Phase 2 – 35KWp which now also incorporates 9 battery storage units that provides ~50% of the site’s electricity needs.
- Our recent acquisition, G&H | Artemis (Plymouth), already has a Voltage Optimisation System but will also add a PV Solar 129KWp installation during FY2025.
As a result of these investments, we will have the capacity to generate approximately 900 kWp of electricity from solar sources. Collectively these have generated around 2,500 MWh’s of electricity since their installation.
We conduct annual energy audits at each of our sites. These audits identify areas for improvement and track existing initiatives through which the site will not only reduce its energy usage over time but also reduce its impact on the environment in the near term. These include:
- LED lighting where not already installed.
- Assessments of alternative forms of heating.
- Exploring heat recovery from manufacturing equipment.
- Installing battery systems to harness excess Solar PV and further improved site efficiencies
- The double glazing of windows where not already installed.
- Upgrade of site equipment with improved energy efficiency
The sites’ progress on these energy reduction actions is reported monthly to our Executive Committee and Board. Additionally, they are reviewed by the Executive Committee quarterly and supported where required with financial investment.
Energy use and scope 1 & 2 emissions
We are targeting to be Net Zero for Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 2035. We are pleased that in FY2024 we made a further significant reduction in our emissions. During FY2025 we will also be assessing which of the Scope 3 emissions metrics it may be practical for us to report against and what reduction targets may be possible.
The primary drivers of our Scope 1 & 2 emissions reduction in the year were:
- The transfer of our Cleveland, Ohio site to renewable, purchased electricity.
- A reduction in energy consumption as a result of site improvement activities.
- Further investment in solar panels
Our emissions data is calculated centrally from data collected locally. In reporting our carbon dioxide emissions, we have followed the UK Government’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines. We have also followed the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reporting Protocol and the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) guidelines. 2023 Conversion factors have been used for October 2023 to May 2024 inclusively, and 2024 Conversion factors used for June 2024 to September 2024 inclusively. In the US eGrid 2021 Conversion factors have been used for October 2023 to January 2024 inclusively, and eGrid 2022 Conversion factors used for February 2024 to September 2024 inclusively.
We have selected as our primary intensity measure carbon dioxide emissions per £1m of revenue for our global scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions (expressed in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent). We are using an operational control boundary for direct GHG emissions. For Scope 1 emissions we include our total owned and leased vehicles’ direct emissions impact. By far the largest element of our energy usage is our US Scope 2 purchased electricity. Our reported data is collected from metered sources.
Current Reporting Year FY2024 Comparison
UK | ROW | Total FY24 | UK | ROW | Total FY23 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Emissions from activities which the Group own or control including combustion of fuel and operation of facilities (scope 1)/tCO2e | 163 | 304 | 467 | 164 | 275 | 439 |
Emissions from electricity, heat, steam and cooling purchase for own use (scope 2)/tCO2e | 352 | 1,712 | 2,064 | 75 | 2,622 | 2,697 |
Total gross scope 1 & scope 2 emissions/tCO2e | 515 | 2,016 | 2,531 | 239 | 2,897 | 3,136 |
Energy consumption used to calculate above emissions:/MWh | 7,210 | 13,551 | 20,761 | 5,784 | 12,881 | 18,655 |
Tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per £1 million of revenue | 7.2 | 29.5 | 18.0 | 3.8 | 33.5 | 21.1 |
SCOPE | REPORTED | |
---|---|---|
Scope 1 - Direct GHG Emissions | Includes emissions from activities owned or controlled by G&H that release emissions into the atmosphere. Examples include emissions from combustion in owned or controlled boilers, vehicles. | Report includes: *Emissions from combustion of gas and fuel for transport purposes. |
Scope 2 - Energy Indirect Emissions | Includes emissions from G&H's own consumption of purchased electricity, steam, heat and cooling. These are a consequence of the group's activities but are from sources not owned/controlled. | Report includes: *Emissions from purchased electricity. |
Certificates
- G&H | ITL Ashford Carbon Footprint Label certification
- G&H Ilminster Eco Energy supply certificate
- G&H Torquay Eco Energy supply certificate
- G&H St Asaph Eco Energy supply certificate
- G&H | Artemis Plymouth Eco Energy supply certificate
If you have any questions regarding our approach or our company's impact on the environment then please don't hesitate to contact us.