Making strides in sustainability
By Charlotte Gregory, Sustainability Engineer
Sustainability is a core principle in our design process at Rada. It influences how each new idea we have evolves into a product. It matters to us because we want to create taps and showers that play their part in creating environmentally conscious spaces.
And importantly, it’s what our customers who design and manage buildings tell us they want too. They have to make sure their buildings run efficiently, resources aren’t wasted and costs are kept in check.
But as well as creating products that can help do all of this, we think it’s important we lead by example. So we’re on a mission to change how we and our facilities work, all with the aim of becoming carbon neutral across the business in 2035.
Looking at where we are now, we’re proud to say that we’ve passed some key milestones and are well on our way to achieving our 2035 goal. Here’s an update.
Through our partnership with our energy provider, 100 per cent of the electricity we use to power all our sites now comes from renewable sources. To top this up, we’re using solar panels on site. Since January, these have already generated enough electricity to power 65 homes for a whole year.
Together, these have meant we’ve reduced our CO2 output by 60 per cent, compared to 2017.
We have also recently received confirmation that all our office waste is now diverted from landfill to recycling and energy-from-waste facilities.
This couldn’t have been achieved without the buy-in from all our staff, some hard work and great suppliers, and the results speak for themselves. Our overall recycle rate is now up to 99 per cent at our Gloucestershire sites, and great progress is being made at our facilities in the north of England.
As you’d imagine, we use a lot of water. We design and make taps and showers after all. But as of now, since embarking on our zero carbon journey in 2008 we’ve reduced our water consumption by half. And we’re not stopping there – we’re thinking of new ways of recycling water and are already excited about the results they will yield.
Thank you to everyone in and outside our business who has helped us reach these important milestones. It’s fantastic to see and has given us more perspective on the challenges our customers face, making us a better and more responsible business as a result.
There’s a way to go before we hit our ultimate goal but with progress like this we’re confident we’ll get there.
Stay tuned for more updates.