Our Environmental Statement
In lots of small ways we are doing our bit to save energy, water and resources. Here are a few ways:
• We have installed solar panels on our roof
• We have 2 electric cars (more to come)
• We recycle all cardboard and reuse boxes where we can
• We use sea freight over air whenever possible
• We separate our waste, including food scraps which are composted on site, and used to grow salad greens outside the building
Here is more detail if you are interested:
We have installed solar panels on the roof of our warehouse, so we now generate more power than we use, despite two electric cars being added to the fleet. We don’t yet have a battery, just a grid tied system, and then try to plug in the cars when the sun shines.
We have asked our suppliers to decrease the flow rates and flow times on taps, so that the amount of water used in our products is reduced. For one model of tap (Presto 605) alone we have calculated this to be over 7,000,000 litres of water, assuming the tap is used 30 times a day. Allowance has been made for the fact some people will push the tap again if the flow time is shorter, but we have seen most don’t. If we assume half of this is warm, this is over 100,000 kWh saved, which costs over $20,000. This change was made 15 years ago, so the saving now would be over 500,000,000 litres.
We have increased the use of sea freight over air. This makes a massive difference when goods come from Europe. It takes 3 months, requires increased stock holding, but on an average shipment, the CO2 saved is equivalent to running a company car for a year.
Nearly all of the measures take a little extra effort, but make sense from a business point of view as well as an environmental point of view.