Not Just Lip Service to Carbon Reduction
22nd April, 2021
Look to the future, focus on the present
Clearmark is tackling its impact on the climate by ensuring this is embedded in the overall business strategy and is a shared vision with employees. Many small and large actions will help us achieve this over time – it’s clear it’s not going to happen overnight and we need to invest time to evolve our systems and operations to transform. By working with local groups, in particular the Low Carbon Business Network, we are in a position to access support from experts in the field and network with other businesses to learn what they are doing, in order to share best practice.
Driving down CO2
Our car fleet is one area where it’s clear we can make a difference and all company car drivers are switching to hybrid and electric cars to reduce their CO2 output. Electric charging points have been installed at the Olympic House, head office car park, with a second phase install at Apollo House, our warehouse building planned next.
In combination with the e-car fleet, Clearmark also utilises Coresuite software to manage customer visits for the external Service Engineers, ensuring the team’s jobs are allocated efficiently based on the exact location of each engineer. This not only benefits the environment by minimising the length and distance of required journeys and thereby reducing the CO2 output, but it helps to ensure better response times for customers requiring our services.
Managing Director, Chris Simpson is a dedicated leader in ensuring the company progresses in the most sustainable ways possible and says, “We’re all responsible for the future of our planet and we have to act now to reduce our carbon emissions. We’re committed to doing the best we can to play our part in this.“
Technology and video conferencing have allowed us to work remotely during the current climate and now that we have adapted to use this in our day to day work, this will play a large part in allowing us to think twice about whether it’s necessary to make a journey by car, plane or train if this can be done by other communication means.
Energy efficiency
Energy use across both buildings is the next big project in planning and Clearmark will be investing in renewable energy and installing solar panels, starting with Apollo House in the near future. Olympic House will also see an upgrade on the air source heating systems to make it more efficient and economical to use – keeping the staff comfortable and happy, ensuring its warm enough in winter and cool enough in summer.
Smaller but equally worthwhile changes are already realising benefit including highly efficient LED lighting across both buildings, sensor lighting and insulation.
Waste not want not
Manufacturing waste and building waste is another area that is high on our priorities. We have installed a baler in our warehouse, we recycle pallets and ensure that we recycle different material types separately across both premises.
In terms of manufacturing, we have also installed two 3D printers to allow us to make bespoke parts, which avoids metal waste whilst giving us greater flexibility in our designs and production time to benefit customers.
Staying focused
It’s clear there is plenty more to do in our journey to reducing our carbon footprint and working with our supply chain will see us extend this even further. Having a clear focus on our objectives is critical “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there” - Lewis Carroll.
Keep up to date with Clearmark and their sustainability journey online, on LinkedIn and on Twitter @ClearmarkCoding. Share with us the sustainable projects you are working on.