Okarno further reduces carbon emissions on journey to becoming a net-zero carbon site by 2024
At our Okarno site here in Ruddington, we’re continuing to invest in sustainable initiatives to drive carbon reductions, improve the wellbeing of our colleagues and achieve our purpose of Making the World a Better Home.
Amongst these initiatives is the installation of a new biomass heating system, part-funded by a £300,000 investment from the Saint-Gobain Carbon Fund. The renewable heating system will completely replace and decarbonise our current diesel and gas heating system and will run off wooden pellets that would have otherwise gone to waste.
Not only will this reduce our CO2 emissions by 150 tonnes a year, it will also provide a more comfortable working environment for our colleagues and a cleaner and more sustainable site for the whole community.
Installation of the system is well underway with 1500m of heating pipework currently being installed across the site, on track for completion of the project at the end of March.
Our Managing Director, Jason Smith, says; “This is a fantastic achievement and it’s one that our colleagues are incredibly proud of. Not only will it create a better working environment, it will help us to become a net-zero carbon site by 2024, and provide a cleaner environment for the local community”.
As well as investing in renewable energy, we’re currently trialling hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO) to power our HGV’s, a biofuel that originates from vegetable oils and is set to deliver a 90% reduction in CO2. We’re currently using HVO in five of our vehicles, making deliveries up and down the country to offer a sustainable delivery solution to our customers.
On top of delivering reduced CO2, the emissions produced by HVO are much cleaner, emitting less nitrous oxides in the air to improve air quality, a huge benefit for the health and wellbeing of our colleagues on site, as well as our local community.
Our Operations Director, Mark Thomas, says; “We’re delighted with the carbon reductions we’ve seen as a result of our HVO trial and are now planning to utilise HVO in as many vehicles as we can, with a target of transitioning our whole fleet to HVO by the end of 2023. Our trial was so successful that we are now supporting our local council to transition their fleet of bin lorries to HVO to further benefit our local community."
You can find out more about the changes we’re making across our business to positively impact sustainability at our Open Day on the 21st May. We’ll be releasing more information on this soon, but in the meantime, if you have any questions or feedback for us we’d love to hear from you. Please send your queries to artexcustomerservice@saint-gobain.com.