In 1998, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol was launched. This was implemented to standardise greenhouse gas accounting and in this report all achievements, goals, and future targets will be categorised into scopes 1, 2, and 3. As well as reporting our emissions in these categories, we plan our initiatives within these categories to determine its level of impact.
Scope 1
Max Optra & Samsara
At the beginning of 2023, MJ Birtwistles & Co Ltd introduced both Max Optra and Samsara systems to improve the overall efficiency of our delivery vehicle fleet. Max Optra is a routing software which optimises our daily deliveries and Samsara is an AI-powered safety programme used to train our drivers, improve their productivity, and monitor fuel usage. Both systems have provided a great boost to our delivery efficiency, which has subsequently led to significant reductions in our scope 1 emissions.
Max Optra specialises in route optimisation and our transport team use this software every day to plan and schedule our deliveries, and then track these deliveries throughout the day, to ensure that the most effective route possible is being used at all times. It has several features to improve our vehicle fleet including dynamic route optimisation which produces routes that automatically take into account delivery time slots, order volume and vehicle capacities, also multi drop route planning, and KPI reporting. This software has provided a huge boost to our business efficiency not only by streamlining our deliveries but also by reducing the number of vans on the road. Before its implementation we would use over 65 vehicles to complete all daily deliveries whereas now we use between 40-45.
Samsara has several functions that have become extremely useful to the business. It analyses our driver’s environmental impact; as it tracks idling waste, carbon emissions, it takes note of vehicle efficiency and estimates an eco-driving score. It also monitors our driver’s safety, by recording any non-conformities to our driving standards. Thus, the tool allows our transport team to coach our drivers to be as safe and environmentally friendly as possible through efficient driving techniques including how to minimise idling, hard-braking and acceleration. The software also regularly ranks our drivers in terms of performance and provides our team with the tools to identify areas for improvement and individual drivers that need further assistance. Therefore, the system has already improved our vehicles and drivers performance and will continue to keep them as safe as possible.
Factory-Based Fuel Tank
Before these systems were introduced, in 2022 a factory-based fuel tank was implemented into the depot of our main site in Manchester. This initiative was put in place because every driver at some point in their day would have to re-fuel their vehicles and it was recognised that there were solutions that meant that this refuelling process did not have to take place outside of our facility. Therefore, we wanted to introduce a fuel tank so that our drivers can have direct access to their fuel source and so that they do not have to drive those extra miles every day. Our scope 1 emissions are reduced by approximately 35 tCO2e each year as there is now no need to drive to and from fuel stations. As well as this reduction, the implementation of the fuel tank has improved our monitorisation. Data accuracy is vital to the improvement of all scopes, and now we have supplier-specific data as we can monitor the exact volume of fuel we purchase and use for our delivery vehicle fleet and extract exact readings whenever necessary. The introduction of these two initiatives have reduced our scope 1 emissions by 61% with a reduction in over 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. These initiatives will also reduce our impact on local and national air pollution, because as we reduce our vehicles and mileage, we mitigate our level of air pollution. This is a vital part of our objectives because we consider our impact on the local community as highly important.
Scope 2
Energy Efficient Technologies
Energy efficient technologies play a vital role in lowering carbon emissions for any business as the small adjustments can create vast improvements on the overall efficiency for our sites. We have censored lighting implemented throughout our factory and offices in our Manchester site and we are working towards implementing this technology in our other sites as well. We also have a MHVR system for our offices which optimises our energy usage and reduces the demand for heating and cooling.
Renewable Energy
Figure 1
Our aim is to be 100% powered by renewable energy, because they are source of clean and unlimited energy. We believe that the use of these energy sources are crucial to the betterment of society. In 2021 and 2022 we were purchasing approximately 49% of our energy from renewable sources and in 2023 this figure decreased significantly to 13-14%, which can be seen in figure 1. This was due to our previous energy supplier altering the spread of energy sources that supply our sites in January 2023. In September, these figures were analysed and as a result the business began purchasing energy from a new supplier in October. Now we are purchasing 42% of our energy from renewable sources. This is still not where we want it to be but it is a step in the right direction, and as our aim is to be powered by 100% renewable energy we will continuously look for ways to increase this current percentage.
Scope 3
Sustainable Cleaning Solutions
Our cleaning solution suppliers Diversey are a leading provider of hygiene, infection prevention, and cleaning solutions. Diversey develop and supply innovative products, services, and technologies that save lives and protects the environment. They are committed to Net Zero by 2050 and to achieve this they have introduced several attributes to produce green cleaning, such as:
• Products, tools, equipment, and methods that protect the health of building occupants, lower the total cost of cleaning, and prevent environmental damage.
• Effective removal of pollutants and pathogens from the building without introducing new risks to occupants.
• Lower total cost to clean by reducing waste, saving water, and/or conserving energy.
• Consideration of chemicals and materials end-of-life so as not to harm the environment. They believe that the greatest opportunity for positive environmental and social impact does not lie solely in one’s own operations, but also through the delivery of products and services that enable their customers to minimise their environmental footprint and operate more efficiently.
Recyclable Cardboard
Our current cardboard packaging supplier is Ribble Packaging Ltd. They are a proud sustainable packaging solutions supplier and the UK’s leading manufacturer of fanfold corrugated cardboard. They provide us with 100% recyclable cardboard, which aids the reduction of our scope 3 emissions and improves the life-cycle emissions of our products. Ribble Packaging is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) which is the world’s most trusted certification for sustainable forestry. This means that we are directly contributing to their mission of ensuring that forests are thriving for all. This is an important first step in our aim to have entirely recyclable packaging so that our customers can dispose of our packaging in an environmentally friendly manner.
Sustainable Waste Disposal
We practice the safe and sustainable disposal of our internal waste and at the end of 2022, we contracted B&M Waste Services to dispose of the majority of our waste. B&M is a carbon net zero business and are committed to sending no waste to landfill. Thus, we are proud to be in business with them and are sure this will be a long-standing relationship as they are just as committed to improving their environmental impact as we are. They use several sustainable methods and ensure that all waste is either repurposed or recycled through methods such as gasification, anaerobic digestion, glass plant processing, and paper mill recycling. Also, Biffa are currently recycling the carboard and paper waste from our main site. Biffa is an established leader of sustainable waste management in the UK and have many sustainable initiatives in place keeping their environmental impact to a minimum. Their site is neighbouring ours in Manchester, keeping the emissions for collection at a minimum. The waste is collected and processed by Biffa on a weekly basis and is then repurposed for further use. In 2023 MJ Birtwistles & Co Ltd produced 937.4 tonnes of waste.
Figure 2
Figure 3
The mixed municipal waste represents only 12% of our overall waste production and this is converted to refuse derived fuel (RDF). It also shows that our organic waste represents 43% of our overall waste production and this is converted to energy via anaerobic digestion. Here at Birtwistles we do everything in our power to keep organic waste to a minimum, but we are proud of the fact that this waste that we produce still has an important function in society. We are also proud to say that the greatest share of our waste is recycled. This is something we aim to improve on as, we want to increase our recycled content and decrease our RDF content. We are committed to sending no waste to landfill and it is important that any waste we produce can be re-used in another aspect of society.
Overall Sustainable Accreditations
We are committed to improving our overall sustainability. We are at the beginning of our sustainability journey, and we understand that there is a lot of work to be done to continuously improve our impact on the environment and society. We also appreciate that accreditations are a significant part of this, as it is important to have recognised accreditors validate and certify the work that is being done. We currently use the platform EcoVadis, and we were awarded the EcoVadis Bronze Sustainability Rating for 2023, and we aim to improve on this in the coming months. EcoVadis has several functions; it aids the tracking and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions, it helps manage ESG risks and compliance and it provides a score for the business’s performance. Also, currently we use the Net Zero Carbon Supplier Tool, which is used by over 30 universities and some of our customers. This tool also helps measure our emissions and provides advice, goals, and aims on how to improve on our scope 1 and 2 emissions. This currently does not cover scope 3 but we are working towards the monitorisation and mitigation of these emissions as well. We are eager to obtain other accreditations for example, we are aiming to be ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 certified, which means that we will have an integrated environmental and energy management system which will help us identify, manage, monitor, and control environmental issues to improve our environmental performance as well as addressing our impact, conservation of resources and energy efficiency.
