At Dewhurst Group, we are committed to promoting sustainability and managing our impact across all areas of our operations. Our strategy is to minimise our environmental impact by reducing our carbon emissions, to make a meaningful contribution to a more sustainable world.
Globally, we have successfully reduced our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 10% in 2023 vs our 2022 baseline, which is driven by the 14% reduction from our UK operations.
This reduction is a direct result of our green energy practices such as driving operational energy efficiencies, green gas and electricity procurement and on-site renewable electricity installations. We have also achieved a 10% decrease in our Group carbon emissions intensity ratio in 2023 compared to 2022, which is pleasing.
We reduced grid electricity consumption by 19% globally in 2023, due to installing 207 kWp, 36 kWp and 60 kWp capacity solar panels at our Feltham, UK and Australia sites. Overall, we successfully reduced our global energy consumption by 4% in 2023, and we look forward to continuing to improve that going forwards.
Two of our New South Wales sites installed solar panels in 2023 with 80 kWp and 36 kWp capacity panels at Australian Lift Components and Lift Material Australia respectively. From 2024, we aim to generate 70% of the power used in our Australia sites through solar power, which will help us reduce our global carbon emissions by c.30%.
We are delighted that our UK-based subsidiaries are now 100% supplied by green electricity and gas. This significant transition will help us make a more than 70% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions for our UK operations in 2024.
We have also switched to green electricity in our non-UK businesses, and 73% of the Group’s electricity is now consumed from renewable sources. This has helped us achieve a 42% reduction in non-green electricity consumption globally compared to the baseline year of 2022.
We have adopted a proactive approach to monitor and manage our emissions, and we regularly measure and track environmental metrics across all sites to identify areas for reduction of carbon emissions. We have also developed comprehensive roadmaps at each business that outline specific actions we will take to minimise our emissions, including investing in new technology, adopting sustainable practices, and sharing these across the Group.
Our global sites have implemented several best practices to promote sustainability and reduce our environmental impact, such as installing solar tinting to conserve energy in Australia. Our operations also prioritise the use of green chemicals, have upgraded to LED lighting, and switched to electric forklifts where feasible. We also optimise equipment usage and use best practices for energy management.
One of our core sustainable objectives is to eliminate carbon emissions, and if this is not practical then to minimise or substitute these. However, sometimes emissions are unavoidable, and we have partnered with Ecologi (a B Corp company) at our UK sites to offset emissions through funding sustainable projects. We aim to become carbon neutral by 2030.
In 2023 we initiated a strategy to divert over 95% of our waste from landfill, and we achieved this target in the UK. We will expand this strategy out to the whole Group in 2024, and are also implementing reduce, reuse and recycling programs to minimise waste at our sites. In the UK we achieved a 9% reduction in non-hazardous waste and an 82% reduction in hazardous waste per sales compared to 2022.
We are committed to reducing our environmental impact by enhancing our recycling programs. We have implemented better segregation practices at our locations in Australia, to reuse and repurpose waste materials, such as bubble wrap and off-cuts. This not only helps us to save raw materials, but also contributes to the circular economy. We continue to reduce our total waste generation and increase our recycling rate globally.
A&A achieved ISO 14001:2015 certification for environmental management in July 2023. This is a great achievement, and demonstrates that sustainability is an embedded part of A&A’s culture and way of working. We will look to implement ISO 14001:2015 across our other Group businesses going forwards.
At Dewhurst Group, we recognise the importance of water conservation and strive to minimise water usage across our operations, such as using recycled water in the production process at TMP.
We collaborate and work closely with our suppliers, however, we need to continue to be curious and involve our suppliers and other stakeholders in the decision-making process, which will allow us to identify potential challenges and opportunities and come up with innovative solutions to overcome them.
TMP was awarded the prestigious Supply Chain Partner award by Bouygues Energies & Services in December 2022, under the category ‘Protect our lives & the environment’. It was a well-deserved recognition of TMP’s firm commitment towards sustainability.
We give more sustainable and eco-friendly choices to our customers. In 2023 we have continued to expand our bio-polymer range at TMP, launching the Manchester Bio bollard.
The NonCrete bollard, launched in 2022, has 2% of the embedded CO2 that a traditional concrete version does (10.6kg of CO2e vs c.640kg CO2e), with no loss in product performance, and it is quicker and easier to install, cheaper, and weighs less.
TMP will expand their innovative bio-polymer range further going forwards, and we will continue to source and use sustainable criteria in our new product development processes across the Group.
