Earth Day 2021: Sharing our sharp focus on Sustainability
22 April 2021As with most businesses, we don’t operate on a remote island, and therefore need to be conscious of how we impact our communities and natural resources every day.
The scientific evidence is clear and irrefutable that human and business activity is causing our planet to warm at an alarming rate. A 1.5°c warmer planet will have catastrophic impacts on our daily life, let alone the ecosystems and natural habitats we live alongside. Much evidence suggests we’re already at this milestone.
International bodies of scientists have warned that we have just over a decade to halve our emissions to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change on our food supply, national security, global health, extreme weather, and more.
We need urgent and ambitious action at every level; from heads of state to private sector leaders, everyone needs to address climate change at every step of the supply chain to change the tide.
Everyone has the ability to do something to address our climate challenge. From a business point of view, taking greater steps towards sustainability is in the best interest of the environment, the business owner and the consumer.
At Lucion, our Sustainability Improvement Plan outlines how we plan to achieve targets and goals that create financial, societal and environmental sustainability.
Earth Day is a fantastic opportunity to share with you our Sustainability Improvement Plan and demonstrate our support for environmental protection. Take a moment to look at our journey to a greener future and the work we are doing each day towards this goal.
Our Sustainability Improvement Plan
The core vision statements of Lucion centres on the delivery of trusted services to our clients. To do this effectively, we must have an unwavering commitment to improving and working towards high standards of Quality, Safety, Environmental and Sustainability.
By pursuing a sustainable path, we are not only investing in our commitment to a greener environment and the protection of the planet future, but we are also becoming a highly successful and well-rounded business for our employees, customers and partners. As part of this innovative initiative, we introduced our five-year Sustainability Improvement Plan (2017-2022). This covers the improvement of our Sustainability, Safety and Well-being of our employees, customers and contractors.
Commitment to our Environment
As a consultancy, we do not manufacture goods or use raw materials to deliver our services, however, we are committed to ensuring that our business operates sustainably, both with regards to the environment and waste.
Our environmental management policy sets out our strategic commitment to responsible business practices and environmental sustainability. Our activities are managed in accordance with our ISO 14001 certified environmental management system which implements controls on our waste, recycling and other related procedures to ensure that statutory requirements are met and maintained.
As a service provider that delivers on-site inspection and testing services, we recognise that carbon emissions from our vehicle fleet are the main waste product of our operations. Highlighting that this is one of the most significant and positive impacts that Lucion can make as part of our Sustainability Improvement Plan 2017-22, we have set a SMART target of reducing our carbon emissions by 10% year on year.
Creating an Efficient Fleet
We have been working to reduce our carbon footprint since 2015 where we initially introduced a fleet-wide telematics system that tracks and reports on the mileage, carbon emissions and performance of all company fleet drivers.
We have updated our company fleet and introduced vehicles with Volkswagen's BlueMotion technology for improved efficiency and the use of AdBlue for use in diesel vehicles which converts dangerous Nitrogen Oxides into water vapour and Nitrogen.
Earlier this year in February, we introduced Lightfoot in-vehicle driver efficiency technology and rewards platform to our fleet of 197 vans. The technology is helping to improve the engine performance of our vans and helping to reduce their CO2 emissions. As a result, nearly a thousand tonnes of CO2 will be stopped from entering the earth’s atmosphere over a five year period. This brings great results and success in our pursuit to protect the environment and increase our sustainability.
Making our Buildings Greener
Our UKAS ISO 17025 laboratory runs on renewable energy powered with photovoltaic cells, which generate electric power by using solar cells to convert energy from the sun, and air source heat pumps, therefore providing all our heating, hot water and electricity from renewable sources, truly making a magnificent step in our mission for greener buildings,
This enables us to identify and address the most important sustainability themes to our business and report on progress throughout the year whilst developing innovative, sustainable ideas for our ever-growing business.
We are committed to taking further steps with the rest of our properties and how we operate as a business.
Reducing Carbon Emissions
Our Carbon intensity per unit of revenue has been successfully declining year on year as shown in the graphs below.
The average figure for emissions per employee has fallen from 1000 to less than 200 tCO2e/employee from 2012 to 2021 (February); this has been driven by an emissions decrease of 10% between 2012-20, and more significantly 62% decrease in the last 12 months.
CO2 emissions per £1 million revenue
The pie chart graph below illustrates our declining carbon emissions through various aspects of the business activities:
CO2 emissions as a percentage of the total for the calendar year 2020:
Working together to align our sustainability goals
Following the recent acquisition of multi-disciplinary environmental consultancy Delta-Simons Environmental Consultants Ltd, Lucion has created a group offering a wide range of environmental regulatory services across the UK and globally.
As environmental consultants, Delta-Simons understand their role and responsibility to lead by example. As such, they are committed to playing their part to not only reduce direct carbon emissions but to use their skills and expertise to support and guide others to do the same.
Delta-Simons have shared a summary of their 2020 carbon footprint that shows their progress towards the sustainability targets they have set.
Click on the image below to read more at the link:
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