Our Pledge for a Sustainable Future

We appreciate that all life on earth is under threat of extinction and believe that reducing the harm to our planet is the greatest challenge we face. So, whilst we have businesses that by their very existence are harmful to the environment, we believe that we can, under our custodianship, not only make a big difference to our impact but hopefully influence others to do the same.

We pledge to use the resources we have – our business, our investments, our voice, and our imaginations – to do something about it.

Our guiding principles will be:

• Reduce our environmental impact
• Balance decisions with understanding environmental and social impacts of our choices
• Collaborate with our customers, suppliers, competitors, and other key stakeholders to reduce their environmental impact
• Reduce health and safety risks
• Support our communities to survive and thrive
• Act with integrity by respecting people and human rights
• Report transparently and honestly

Our acquisitions are viewed as long term, patient investments. We feel we are custodians of our businesses and have a duty to improve their environmental and community impact. Our aim is to not only improve our own environmental performance, but to also influence and inspire the markets that we operate in.

And our employees’ challenges are our challenges too – from the shortage and price of housing and availability of adequate and reasonably priced public transport to the rising cost of living. We understand that our people are the most important part of our businesses, and we are committed to supporting and nurturing our staff as a priority.

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Our Achievements

We have been proactive in adapting processes at our businesses to work towards carbon neutrality. We know that the work will never be done, but we’ve made a great start.

Notable Group achievements include, but are not limited to:

• First mobile crane hire businesses in the UK to run 100% of fleet on HVO renewable biofuel, reducing carbon emissions by over 70%
• Solar panel installation at our precast concrete business that generates enough energy to power 50% of manufacturing operations, reducing national grid dependancy by over 25%
• Recycled plastic bottle resin at our GRP business that will help us save 1-million plastic bottles from landfill every year, reducing carbon emissions by over 45%
• Introduction of REPREVE® fibre fabric made using 100% recycled materials at our mastectomy and post-surgery wear business
• 100% recyclable plastic now used within our silage film product offerings at both our agricultural businesses
• Adoption of electric vehicle charging points across a number of our businesses head offices

We are committed to continual research and development that will ensure we are always progressing and heading in the right direction.