Minimising our impact on the environment and positively influencing our surrounding communities; supporting innovation in our industry.
There are a number of actions being taken to directly benefit the places and the communities in which we both live and work, through the careful management of the natural resources we consume. The focus is on establishing solutions that will support our long term environmental objectives which can be rolled out across the majority of our locations.
As we upgrade or refurbish our branch sites and body shops we look to find opportunities which will deliver long term benefits through energy saving measures and responsible waste management, and seek to minimise their impact on our neighbours.
Our progress
FY2022:
What we said we would do
- Commit to zero waste to landfill by 2025 in the UK and continue to work with our providers in Spain and Ireland to achieve similar where conditions allow.
- Implement strategies to reduce our environmental footprint and improve the efficiency of our operations.
- Set targets for Scope 1 and 2, and identify material Scope 3 exposure in the supply chain.
FY2023:
What we have done
- We have made good progress towards the 2025 target of zero waste to landfill with 99% of our UK&I waste being diverted from landfill this year.
- Set absolute Scope 1 and 2 targets, along with a target to procure 100% renewable energy.
- Mapped out and reported Scope 3 emissions across the value stream.
- Trialled plastic welding of bumpers to reuse rather than replace and increased our use to green parts.
- Introduced a new paint scheme in our repair workshops, with significant operational and environmental benefits.
- Invested £400,000 installing low energy LED lighting to 65% of our estate.
- Working in partnership with Iberdrola, c.£340,500 has been invested to install solar arrays at nine of our Spanish sites, saving c.232 tonnes CO2e a year.
- Planted 2,000 trees in four forests throughout Spain’s national territory, offsetting 500 tonnes of carbon.
FY2024:
What we plan to do
- Develop a transition plan outlining a pathway to achieve our carbon targets in the medium term and becoming net zero in the long term.
- Develop a waste and resource efficiency policy which promotes the adoption of circular economy principles.
- Develop a community volunteering policy to encourage greater employee involvement in charity work and increase the social value we generate.
Managing environmental impact
We continue to make progress reducing our environmental impact and investing in local communities.
Waste and water management
Waste control and reduction is a central part of our ISO 14001 accredited environmental management system which is regularly audited to ensure we are continually improving practice across our workshops, repair centres and offices. We aim to promote more effective waste segregation to increase reuse and recycling, and to reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill. We have set a target to achieve zero waste to landfill by FY2025; overall, 99% of the waste collected by our UK contractor was diverted from landfill. We had a 4% increase in overall waste volume collected; this was mostly driven by an increase in metal being collected across the estate. We carried out an optimisation project reviewing schedules and collection configurations. This helped reduce unnecessary general waste provisions, whilst instigating a number of other initiatives including the provision of vehicle bumper racks and headlight bins at 41 of our sites.
59,000 tyres were collected and reprocessed as fuel for use in the cement industry. Through our oil waste provider, 100% of the used lubricating oil generated in the servicing of our vehicles is sent to their oil refinery and processed back into a base oil to be used in the production of new lubricating oils. The waste generated in our workshops, such as used oil filters and oil-contaminated waste, is collected by our waste provider and sent to specialist facilities.
To improve oversight of our water use in the UK, we have also consolidated our providers and will work with them to improve monitoring and identification of high usage relative to other similar facilities to benchmark our usage and identify any potential leaks. We have a number of water recycle units installed at our Spanish sites, and are carrying out feasibly studies to identify if similar vehicle wash recycle facilities can be provided in the UK and Ireland.
Energy saving
We are developing further programmes to reduce our energy consumption. We have invested c.£400,000 in FY2023 into installing LED lighting at our offices, depots and repair facilities. 65% of Redde Northgate’s UK sites now have full LED lighting, as do all main office buildings. The plan is to further increase that number in FY2024 to 90%. In FY2023, working in partnership with Iberdrola, c.£340,500 has been invested to install solar arrays at nine of our Spanish sites. This is in addition to seven sites that already had solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays installed in FY2022 and amounts to 473 kWp of incremental renewable solar energy that we are now able to generate. The estimated annual CO2e savings from these seven installed arrays is expected to be 232 tonnes.
This year we have established a Facilities and Behaviour Working Group which reports to the Sustainability Committee. The purpose of this group is to identify and evaluate opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of our estate, instigating projects to reduce waste, energy and water consumption.
Re-using vehicle parts
We have worked closely with organisations in the UK to increase the use of green parts. Green parts are recovered from damaged vehicles and their use provides a more sustainable solution, not only in helping to reduce carbon emissions but also helping us mitigate against the current supply challenges. The reuse of vehicle parts in Spain results in over €2.4m saved; fleet vehicles that are involved in accidents have the parts, that are still in excellent working order removed and reused on other vehicles in the fleet.
Circular economy principles
The procurement of green parts along with repairing bumpers are good examples of practising circular economy (CE) principles as they minimise our use of the world’s resources, cuts waste and reduces carbon emissions. In FY2024 we will develop a waste and resource efficiency policy which will aim to further reduce the environmental and social impacts of our operations and consumption by encouraging greater use of CE principles. The CE principles that will feature in this policy will promote:
- The elimination of waste and pollution by designing and configuring our operations and processes so that we avoid generating waste and harmful substances
- Keep products and materials in use by extending their lifespan, repairing, reusing, or recycling them.
New paint scheme
We have introduced a new paint scheme in 62 repair workshops, with significant operational and environmental benefits. The formulation of this new paint, when compared with the old paint system halves bake/drying times from 40 minutes down to 20 minutes. The new paint scheme also requires much lower baking temperature, from the 70-60ºC to 40ºC, when compared with the old paint system.
The faster curing time and reduced baking temperature of the new paint results in a predicted saving of 40% in carbon emissions, when compared with our previous paint scheme.
Going forward, we plan to measure in-use energy/carbon reduction of the new paint scheme, working closely with the supplier, to maximise the operational and environmental benefits it should bring.
Investing in renewable energy
51 kWp installed at our Getafe HQ site in January 2023
In FY2023, working in partnership with Iberdrola, c.£340,500 has been invested to install solar arrays at nine of our Spanish sites. This is in addition to seven sites that already had solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays installed in FY2022 and amounts to 473 kWp of incremental renewable solar energy that we are now able to generate. The estimated annual CO2e savings from these seven installed arrays is expected to be 232 tonnes.
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Case study: Circular economy
This year we generated c.653 tonnes of plastic waste, a significant proportion of which was plastic bumpers. In support of insurance companies aims and to reduce plastic waste volumes we have commenced a plastic welding trial at two of our vehicle repairs sites.
Plastic welding is used to repair bumpers rather than replace them which reduces waste and material consumption. Following a successful completion of the trial, we are implementing a wider rollout programme which not only includes purchasing more of the welding equipment but also working with the manufacturer to carry out training for our operatives. We have also improved our internal reporting processes to better measure the benefits and reduced environmental impact of the equipment’s use.
We have worked closely with organisations in the UK to increase the use of green parts. Green parts are recovered from damaged vehicles and their use provides a more sustainable solution, not only in helping to reduce carbon emissions but also helping us mitigate against the current supply challenges. The reuse of vehicle parts in Spain results in over €2.4m saved; fleet vehicles that are involved in accidents have the parts, that are still in excellent working order removed and reused on other cars in the fleet.
The procurement of green parts along with repairing bumpers are good examples of practising circular economy (CE) principles as they minimise our use of the world’s resources, cuts waste and reduces carbon emissions. In FY2024 we will develop a waste and resource efficiency policy which will aim to further reduce the environmental and social impacts of our operations and consumption by encouraging greater use of CE principles.