Russell Group Joins Global Sustainability Efforts for World Environment Day

Today marks the 50th anniversary of World Environment Day – a day were millions of people across the globe engage in an effort to protect and restore the Earth.

Working in one of the top polluting industries means that developing new ways to operate in order to minimise our environmental impact is crucial. Through our Environmental Policy and Sustainability Strategy, we have put many initiatives in place to tackle CO2 emissions and reach our goal of being NET Zero by 2040.

Some of the environmentally focused initiatives we have put in place include:

Alternative fuels:

We are actively looking for alternative fuels as a short-term and mid-term solution to reducing our carbon footprint.

Going Electric:

Investing in electric forklift trucks to use across our warehouses and energy efficient LED motion sensor lighting throughout our office buildings and warehouses.

Updating our fleet:

Replacing our vehicles every 7 years with the latest technology – currently over 95% of our fleet meet euro 5 and euro 6 standards.

Tracking and managing our fuel consumption:

Utilising vehicle tracking systems to aid in the management of fuel consumption and using transport management systems to ensure the most efficient daily operations are achieved.

Reporting our Carbon footprint:

We have created a carbon footprint calculator to work in partnership with our customers to lower carbon footprint. In addition, we report our carbon footprint monthly to internal board reports, annually through our Group Accounts and every four years through the Government’s Energy Savings Scheme (ESOS).

Road to Rail:

A modal shift from road to rail has saved us 7.5 million gallons of diesel and reduced our carbon emissions by 43,500 tonnes. As such, we are currently collaborating with one of our key customers to construct an interchange terminal to aid the migration from road to rail.

We are hopeful that these environmental initiatives will echo the successes of our previous environmental projects which brought an annual saving of 1,729.22 t CO2. Nevertheless, we will continue to carry out regular reviews of our environmental initiatives and introduce new projects on our journey towards NET Zero.

More information about our Environmental Policy and Sustainability Strategy can be found in our Sustainability Statement.