With the current pressure on businesses to go carbon neutral, Sheffield’s Arden Winch & Co demonstrate how manageable the transition can be once you break the chain.
2021 has seen Arden Winch & Co Ltd hit their stride on the road to net-zero. The 200 plus year old supplier of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which has a head office in Sheffield, has made energy saving and efficiency a priority over the past year. The team now want to share their experiences of reaching for carbon neutrality and the speed at which progress can be achieved.
Steve Barker, managing director and chairman of Arden Winch, said: “We have achieved so much in one year. We didn’t start from scratch in 2021 – we had already started to use electric vehicles and had already updated a lot of our lighting to LED – but it has been eye-opening to see what can be achieved in a single year and we see ourselves much closer to net-zero than we anticipated.”
Guided by commercial energy consultants Professional Energy Purchasing, Arden Winch & Co began to implement an aggressive carbon reduction policy, achieving reductions of 33 per cent. The improvements are ongoing and a follow up audit will allow Steve to fine tune their operations further by implementing on-site solar energy and investing in a fully electric fleet.
“I like to see results, so seeing investments make a difference encourages me to move as fast as possible. The targets set by the government sound daunting until you break them down and make a start – the technology is out there to make those goals achievable.
“Manufacturers are climatised to moving quickly and aiming for efficiencies in their business. This is an investment in our future and we must look ahead to make the right changes now. We have a responsibility and an obligation to do the right thing. It is no longer about simply increasing turnover.”
