Sustainability
Here at Clearmark, we believe it is up to all of us to do our best to minimise the environmental footprint we leave behind. Our mission is simple; to be a supplier of coding and labelling systems with sustainability at the forefront of our strategy, and seek out ways of reducing carbon emissions in operations.
How we're measuring our carbon footprint
Clearmark has been able to identify contributors to Green House Gas (GHG) emissions that have been directly and indirectly made throughout the business. Direct emissions include such things as running our fleet of vehicles that are out on the roads, and the LPG used from our buildings.
Indirect emissions include those that have been produced on our behalf. An example of this is through the electricity and energy that we buy for heating and cooling both buildings at Clearmark Solutions.
Our immediate plan is to target these direct and indirect contributors as these are mostly within our control. However, there are other factors that we do need to address and to eventually target as part of our plan to reduce our overall carbon footprint.
These are again indirect contributors that include emissions being created up and down the supply chain such as goods and services that we sell and purchase, transport of goods, staff commuting, waste disposal, water consumption amongst others.
Carbon Footprint Review
In April 2022, we conducted a review of our carbon footprint. The key findings from this review are as follows:
- We are producing less CO₂ emissions year on year since 2019 (excluding business travel)
- In 2021, emissions created from business travel are the single biggest contributor to our total footprint, accounting for around 71% of emissions
- The total CO₂ emissions produced by Clearmark equate to approximately 28 single person households
Our current efforts to reducing our carbon footprint
Driving Down CO₂
Gradually upgrading company cars to hybrid and electric vehicles in order to reduce fuel consumption and CO₂ output. We have already made solid progress with this and are continuing to switch over remaining vehicles in 2022.
Waste Management
Manufacturing and building waste are areas high on the priority list. We recycle all that we can at our head office buildings in Nottingham, from scrap metal, cardboard and paper, to plastics and more. We have also invested in 3D printing, which minimises over ordering of parts by making bespoke solutions on demand.
ChargePoint Electric car charging
ChargePoint electric car charging points installed at our Olympic House HQ building with plans in place to install further e-car charging points at our secondary building, Apollo House. This installation makes it even easier for staff to charge their cars whilst in the office free of charge.
Utilising technology for Efficient team deployment
With the introduction of Coresuite, a software that allows us to create efficient route planning for our Service Engineers. This helps to reduce our carbon output by showing the location of each engineer's vehicle in real-time, meaning our job scheduler can allocate jobs quickly based on engineers' proximity to the site. Thus, saving time, distance travelled, and fuel consumption.
Upgraded heating system
We have upgraded our heating system for Olympic House with air source heat pumps. Air source heat pumps generate most of the energy that they require from outside air, resulting in less emissions being generated from heating our HQ building.
Clearmark Clean-up
In July 2022, several members of staff completed a company-wide litter pick on Sherwood Business Park to show our commitment to sustainability on our journey to Net Zero.
Staff set out in small groups and tackled different areas of the business park where an array of general and recyclable waste was collected which we then responsibly disposed of on-site.
This was a great opportunity for staff to step away from their workstations for the afternoon, enjoy the weather, and connect with people from other areas of the company. We look forward to planning more litter picks in the future, as we strive toward our Net Zero target.
Energy Efficiency
Energy use across both buildings is the next big project in planning and Clearmark will be investing in renewable energy and installing solar panels, starting with Apollo House in the near future.
Apollo House, built in 2017, already has a solid foundation to become a fully energy efficient building. Because of the insulation in the building, it is able to keep cool in the summer and warm in the winter with a reduced need of heating and cooling. We also have LED auto-switch lighting that runs throughout.
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