Carbon Policy

Introduction

GPC are committed to reducing our carbon footprint.  We have joined the fight against climate change and agree that all businesses have a duty to work towards reduced carbon emissions.

Goal

To reduce Carbon Emissions within all scopes of our business operations.

To raise awareness within our team and stakeholders of the recognised categories:-

Scope 1 – Direct Emissions

Scope 2 – Indirect Emissions

Scope 3 – Other Indirect Emissions

What we are doing

·         Our electricity is sourced from a Green Energy Provider.

·         Our gas is sourced from a supplier who is involved in re-investing in renewable energy sources and is working towards NetZero by 2050.

·         We are moving our light fittings over to more energy efficient LED bulbs.

·         New servers and laptops have been purchased which are more energy efficient.

·         We have invested in a new computer system which has reduced the use of paper in the office.

·         We are reviewing our supply chain, and focussing new sourcing projects as close to home as possible.  We have been working on a lot of new projects this year, the majority of which are made in the UK and the remainder are made in Europe. We are not actively sourcing new suppliers further afield.

·         We have reduced our foreign travel

·         We have planted trees – in an effort to balance the scales, we have invested in projects that soak up carbon and have planted trees through the plant a tree scheme.  

·         We have encouraged staff to take responsibility for their use of energy and explained that the greenest energy is the energy that is not used. This has fostered a ‘switch off when not in use’ environment where lights, computers etc are switched off when not needed.

Continuing to do the right thing:

·         We will invest in our office building and also identify energy usage with a plan to continually improve energy efficiency, using low carbon, renewable energy systems where possible.

·         We have a rolling scheme to replace desktop computers with new models which are more energy efficient.

·         We will source from UK suppliers where practical.  

·         We will review our carrier choices and where possible utilse fleet management, transition to alternative fuels and low carbon technology.  We are about to switch a lot of our deliveries to DPD and one of the reasons behind this choice is that they are focussed on a Clean, Green Delivery, using Electric Vehicles and offsetting their Carbon Emissions by planting trees.  

·         We will continue to reduce our waste, with reponsible purchasing, re-use, repair, and recycling programs.

·         We have already, and will encourage more Virtual meetings where appropriate as opposed to flying / driving to visits.  

·         With our new computer system we now have the ability to monitor packaging used, and as part of our Extended Producer Responsibility we will look to reduce packaging / use more recycable packaging where appropriate (not to the detriment of the delivery of the product)

Additional Information

We encourage our whole team to get involved and to personally think about the environment in everything they do.  Over nearly 40 years of business GPC has a culture of embracing change and our aim is to always improve in everything we do.