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.
The Group has made real progress with its reductions in its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. 2024 has been a year of big change with our Global carbon emissions dropping 33% which equates to a reduction of 189 tonnes of CO2.
This is despite sales increasing by 11%. This has been achieved through numerous actions but the biggest has come from the continuation of group companies switching electricity and gas contracts as they mature, into green ‘zero carbon’ contracts. 10 out of 12 group companies now operate solely from 100% renewable electricity contracts, and 2 out of 5 group companies now operate solely from biogas contracts.
The switch to biogas has helped us reduce our gas emissions by 24%. As of September 2024, 74% of our company’s electricity consumption and 41% of our company’s gas consumption comes from renewable sources. The group has also successfully trialled and implemented a fourday production week at two group companies. This has reduced electricity and gas consumption by 16% without compromising product quality, output, or sales.
Prior year’s capital expenditure and commitment to on-site solar panels has helped our carbon reduction. The installation of solar panels at four group company sites – our Feltham (UK), two Sydney & one Perth (Australia) sites have enabled us to reduce our global grid electricity consumption by 15%.
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 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. As a result, our global sites continue to make incremental changes in line with best practices
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 2024 we continued to expand our strategy of diverting over 95% of our waste from landfill, out to the whole Group. We are also implementing reduce, reuse and recycling programs to minimise waste at our sites.
Whilst we are conscious of the waste from our operations, TMP is leading the way for traffic management by recycling their own and competitor’s bollards. TMP collects old or damaged bollards due for replacement and recycles them, enabling the plastic recovered to be reused.
Material which was once sent to landfill now offsets the need for virgin plastic to be utilised. Furthermore, TMP plants a tree in areas of declining vegetation for every bollard replaced as well as every bollard recycled (or on orders over a set price point). 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 re-achieved ISO 14001:2015 certification for environmental management in 2024.
We collaborate and work closely with our suppliers, and by being curious and involving our suppliers and other stakeholders in the decision-making process, this allows us to identify potential challenges and opportunities and come up with innovative solutions to overcome them. A&A’s Ecobox product has replaced more than 2,500 x 20 litre plastic oil drums since its inception in 2022. In July 2024, A&A also launched its Disposoil service which provides customers with the ability to recycle waste oil for reuse, reducing the need for additional fossil fuel extraction and processing to create new oil.
The Ecobox is a more transportable solution which enables greater carriage of deliveries in our own and customer’s vans. When onsite, it is easier to transport to the job, the replacement oil is distributed via an easy-pour recycled plastic spigot which is attached to the biodegradable bag that can be mindfully disposed of after use, reducing landfill waste.
