Sustainability is a massive concern for all businesses and industries right now, even for the country as a whole. At the end of April, the government announced their revised aim to cut carbon emissions by 78% of what they were in 1990. So, we hear you ask, what are Reflex doing to tackle environmental concerns, create sustainable packaging, and be a sustainable business?
Our Key Priorities
Sustainable development means approaching all aspects of the business with environmental and societal concerns at the forefront of our minds.
After lots of thought and research across Reflex, we have developed 3 key priorities to focus on:
- Reduce our impact on the environment by using renewable energy sources, reducing waste, and driving efficiencies through our products, processes, and facilities
- Provide our customers with a greater choice of environmentally friendly materials and products
- Conserve precious resources
Manufacturing a Smaller Footprint
The biggest contributor to our carbon footprint is how we make our products. We’ve pinpointed two areas where we can massively reduce our impact: raw materials production and electricity used in manufacturing.
Reflex ensures that we complete assessments on energy usage, manufacturing processes, and transport every 4 years as part of the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme. We also keep track of our carbon footprint using the requirements of the Streamlined Energy Carbon Reporting scheme. These schemes have allowed us to identify our real-time impact and develop innovations to increase sustainability.
So, What Have We Actually Done?
The electricity we use in the manufacturing process is 80% of our carbon footprint so we’ve made some changes to our systems.
Investments in state-of-the-art machinery reduces the amount of energy needed to produce products and material use.
Wind turbines have been installed at our Boston site and will be rolling out across other sites this year.
Solar Panels have been installed at our Mansfield and Leicester Sites which collectively produce 158,000 kW/H annually (enough electricity to power 42 households a year!). The program we started in May 2018 will see solar panels added to sites across our estate.
LED lighting has been installed at all of our manufacturing sites, reducing energy usage by 75%, on average, versus conventional lighting options.
Our car fleet is actively assessed against our internal targets and the wider industry targets. Currently, 76.20% of our car fleet is hybrid, 11.90% of our car fleet is electric and 11.90% of our car fleet is diesel. As of 27th April 2021, the average emissions are 36.3 grams of CO2 per km in our fleet.
On top of all this innovation, all of our electricity is provided by renewable energy sources. This translates to us saving over 4,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
Zero to Landfill
The majority of the waste we produce does not go to landfill sites. Due to its low moisture content and high calorific value, it is an ideal source of power in solid recovered fuel (SRF) form.
This means that 4,000 tonnes of waste is saved from landfill annually across the Reflex Group. That weight is the approximate equivalent to 317 London double-decker buses!
ISO 14001
Both of our Reflex Label Plus sites are certified to ISO 14001 (Environmental Management Systems). This means that our Barwell and Keighley sites’ ‘environmental impact is being measured and improved’ in line with ISO’s high standards.
Our Net Zero Carbon Commitment
Did you know that Reflex is carbon negative? This means that you are limiting your carbon footprint every time you make a purchase with us!
In 2018 we teamed up with Forest Carbon and began our ‘net zero’ journey by planting just under 7,000 trees in Cumbria to offset our Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions. The latest project we’ve devised in Scotland involves the planting of 43,000 trees which has been estimated to offset the next 3-4 years’ worth of emissions.
You can read more about this project in our blog post on it. You can tell that we’re passionate about reducing our consumption and emissions!
Many of our sites also take part in Government-backed Climate Change Agreements. These are voluntary commitments on energy usage and carbon dioxide emissions made to the Environment Agency.
Not content with net zero, though, we have made the commitment to capture the entire volume of carbon emitted by Reflex from the day we were founded in 2002, within the next few years.
To learn more about our sustainability journey or our sustainable packaging options either have a look at our blog or contact us through our website, by email, or phone.
