Sheffield manufacturer achieves carbon neutrality

Sheffield headquartered Gripple, the manufacturer of wire joiners, tensioners and suspension systems, has released its 2022 Sustainability Progress Report which outlines how it has achieved its first sustainability goal: carbon neutral across its UK operations.

This means that Gripple, through dedicated efforts across its South Yorkshire manufacturing plants, has managed to achieve emission reduction targets, supplemented with sustainable offsetting to deliver no net impact on the environment, as certified by Planet Mark and in accordance with PAS2060:2014. This achievement demonstrates Gripple’s commitment to comprehensively mitigating its environmental impact.

As demonstrated in its 2022 Sustainability Progress Report, Gripple has reduced its electricity usage from the national grid in 2022, compared to the previous year by four per cent, despite adding a new manufacturing site to its UK operations in 2022.

Tasha Lyth, sustainability manager at Gripple, said: “Carbon neutral for our UK operations is an important milestone on our journey to climate positivity and it also paves the way for our other manufacturing facilities across the world to do the same. We are extremely proud to have achieved this goal, through a focus on reducing carbon emissions, energy and water consumption, business travel and waste across all areas of our business.”

She adds: “The release of our 2022 Sustainability Progress Report helps our customers, partners, and colleagues understand more about how we are growing our business in an inclusive, environmentally conscious way. We are committed to integrating cutting-edge technologies, forging strategic partnerships and engaging with stakeholders to ensure we leave an indelible positive impact on the planet.”

Gripple achieved carbon neutral for its UK operations by focusing on improving energy management, investing in staff training and education and appointing Sustainability Champions in its business. Its Sustainability Champions support Gripple’s Operations teams with frequent energy audits and reviews, identifying new improvement projects and sharing best practice across its UK sites.

Gripple has carefully chosen its carbon credits to offset carbon emissions on a number of hydro power, wind farms, solar farms and wind projects globally.

Part of Gripple’s journey to climate positive involves evaluating the environmental performance of its products and systems. The company’s pre-assembled trapeze bracket system Fast Trak is the first product to have published verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) including a full set of verified type III LCAs The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

Gripple’s Fast Trak EPDs provide valuable information to architects and construction professionals who want to assess the long-term sustainability of products being used in the built environment.

Kevin St Clair, managing director of Gripple – UK & Ireland, said: “As an employee-owned company, we are incredibly proud to be building a business that is future proofed in terms of its environmental performance.

“We are determined to play our part in reducing our impact on the planet and contribute to a brighter, more sustainable future. Our activities go beyond being carbon neutral and achieving net zero carbon emissions, by designing products and solutions that deliver environmental benefits to customers and local communities in our areas of operation globally.”

In addition to achieving carbon neutrality for its UK operations, Gripple has been awarded a Silver Medal as a recognition of its EcoVadis Sustainability Rating. The EcoVadis rating methodology measures the quality of a company’s sustainability management system, which allows benchmarking against industry peers and evaluation of overall sustainability performance.

Gripple is already well on the way to reaching its second goal: to achieve carbon neutrality for its global operations by reducing its total carbon emissions (tco2e) from 862.7 to 822.6, representing a total decrease of 4.6 per cent. Its third goal is to achieve net zero by 2030 and Gripple has invested in upgrading its data collection processes to ensure a full carbon footprint can be assessed and analysed.

Steve Malkin, CEO of Planet Mark, explains: “It is fantastic that Gripple has achieved carbon neutrality for its UK operations. The company is very much leading by example, by making the next ambitious commitment to achieve carbon neutrality for its global operations.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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