What if global companies could be planet-friendly?

On the 12th May 2021 Ben Goodare - Head of Corporate Responsibility at Renishaw plc - gave a an interesting talk on how the company has been addressing sustainability, which was followed by a conversation and some questions and answers.

To catch up with the video of the talk and conversation, please click on the image below:

Ben outlined the different ‘scopes’ of greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3) and the challenges in accounting for all emissions.

The company has reduced its carbon footprint (under Scope 1 and 2) by 95% in the last five years by a combinations of factors: smart controls, own solar generation, energy efficiency, LED lighting, insulation, and buying (certified) green electricity from the grid.

Buildings are long-term investments so they need to be built to be efficient for the future; so very high levels of insulation are included, for example.

For the average business, Scope 3 emissions represent 80% of the their emissions but is the hardest to measure (and it is voluntary whether these are reported or not).

Renishaw is exploring the implications of more home working, but this can be difficult to measure. Someone working alone at home in a poorly insulated house that is well heated will probably use a lot more energy than communiting to work, so there are difficult trade-offs to be made in designing a scheme for hybrid working.

Ben talked about other ideas that are increasingly being discussed, such as the ‘circular economy’ and the ‘ecological footprint’. Both of these require companies to consider the full ‘supply chains’ of their goods and services - from the acquisition of raw materials, through processing, transport, etc. and then downstream, to their customers and the end-use and maintenance of products.

Renishaw, for example, avoids using landfill for its waste. They have used some incineration but want to move away from this. Sometimes it can be very simple things - as when they asked suppliers not to include a paper copy of their catalogue with every delivery, or a supplier of cables not to wrap these in plastic.

He shared a quote from the CEO of Tesco “If you bought it cheaply, then somebody paid for it”

The Modern Slavery Act means that means that companies who want to be sustainable have to ask hard questions about how things were produced. This is not just something that happens abroad, where regulations are weak or not enforced. Gloucester, Cheltenham and Bristol are slavery hot-spots and you will meet 3 to 7 slaves in a year without realising it. In the supply chains for cotton, phones and food, we use, 47 slaves would have been involved.

Renishaw has added a lot of solar to its warehouses in UK and elsewhere and want to add more renewable electricity generation, including wind turbines and hydro.

Ben mentioned Gloucestershire LEP’s “Gloucestershire Climate Commitment”, which is a playbook for SMEs to measure and address sustainability issues.

Ben is proud of the fact that in its first year of listing, Renishaw plc was ranked 23 of 100 companies on the FTSE 100.

The company does not tend to publicise its achievements, as it prefers to walk the talk; doing it for the right reasons, not for PR. This is very much at the heart of the ethos of the company.

Ben addressed a number of other points and questions in this fascinating ‘In Conversation’. It is inspiring to know that Nailsworth has a company operating in the town that is world beating in its field, and also play a leading role in adopting sustainable practices.

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