The first chapter on our net-zero journey
Our journey to net zero began in 2021, where we set ourselves ambitious targets to achieve net zero emissions by 2040.
We established a sustainability committee chaired by our Managing Director to drive our strategy to net zero and also a carbon reduction team, who would implement changes to reduce our carbon impact.
We first had to measure our scope one emissions (fuel) and scope two (energy) to establish a baseline set of data for 2019. We then collated the same information for 2020 and 2021 and we continue to collate this information for 2022.
Using this data, we analysed the energy use at each of our sites. One site in particular, Manchester showed particularly high energy usage in comparison to other sites of a comparable size. We then reviewed this data with the manager of this site and showed that the average monthly energy consumption was 25,000 kWh per month. We challenged him to reduce energy consumption. Through manual intervention i.e., turning off lights in areas not in use, energy consumption reduced by over 50%.
Lighting in our warehouses in a major contributor to our energy costs, so at Manchester we decided to convert all the existing lighting system to be fully LED with sensors on each light. We also exchanged all the external lighting to LED on sensors too. This project completed in May 2022.
The results of this action have reduced our average energy use at this site to just 2,500 kWh per month which is a 90% reduction when compared to the original figure before manual intervention. The LED lighting are warranted for five years which also reduces our maintenance costs for the site.
Other actions we have taken to reduce energy costs are, replacing external building lighting on fifteen sites with LEDs on sensor control. Installing solar panels on our site at Leeds, with three other sites already having solar panels fitted, generating renewable energy.
As our energy contracts have expired, we have replaced these with contracts using 100% renewable energy. So far, we have converted twelve sites to 100% renewal energy. By end of March 2023, all of Crown’s sites where we hold the energy contracts will be 100% renewable energy.
Our actions to date have resulted in a 29% reduction in our CO2e emissions when compared to our 2019 baseline data.
As vehicles in our fleet are due for renewal, we have been replacing smaller diesel vehicles with electric vehicles. We have three on fleet now with six more ordered and more to follow. We have installed electric charging points at five sites with more to follow as we increase the size of our electric vehicle fleet.
We are also educating our employees to be carbon literate and to understand their impact on the environment and to provide guidance on how they can reduce their own carbon footprint both at work and home. So far forty-nine employees have received external carbon literacy training. Our plan to for all employees to undergo this training by the end of 2023.
We also must consider the activities of our suppliers and service partners who carry our services for Crown and their carbon impact, which is known as scope three emissions. We are currently gathering this information to assess this impact and then collaborate with our suppliers and service partners to reduce their carbon impact.
We are now working on other initiatives such as installing LED lighting in several of our sites, more solar generation, and waste reduction initiatives.
These measures continue to reduce our carbon emissions and we are confident we will achieve our target of net zero emission by 2040.
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