Unfortunately the motor industry has a history of being a significant contributor to harmful emissions. Because of this we are acutely aware of our responsibility to take the lead in improving this position and effecting a significant improvement in the carbon emissions from our products, our buildings and our staff. We are already seeing a significant swing towards the sales of electric vehicles, plus their usage by our members of staff. We are engaged in a  programme to roll out increasing numbers of electric vehicle chargers across all our sites to support this. All of our electricity is either from a renewable source or offset so that it is carbon neutral.

Every one of our Businesses is supported by an Eco Champion. This is a member of staff who takes responsibility for monitoring the actions of our sites to ensure that we conserve natural resources wherever possible – that might be switching lights off, turning heating down or fixing leaking hosepipes. All our Champions have passed the Carbon Literacy Training programme and have committed individual actions and Business actions to reduce carbon outputs.

We were early adopters of solar panel technology, having installed our first panels over 15 years ago. We are now in the process of scoping out a new round of installations to take advantage of the advancement of technology, as we continue our journey towards a carbon net zero position.

We believe we can do more to improve our positon on recycling. To this end we have just finished our pilot into waste reduction at our Gorseinnon sites. By working extensively to educate our staff and focusing on making it easier for them to separate their waste we have managed to achieve a 66% reduction in general waste and a 75% improvement in the amount we recycle. Having created a successful template, our Group Environmental Manager is now in the process of rolling the scheme out across our Group. The Welsh Government is in the process of designing such a scheme to pilot in Cardiff – but we decided it was too important to wait.

Our Group Environmental commitment is to help all our employees, customers and suppliers understand the responsibility they have in protecting the environment and to minimise the impact they have on it.

From senior management to junior members of staff, engagement and training is essential to achieve the behavioural change necessary to address the scale and urgency of the climate emergency.

By improving this awareness, we want to make a positive contribution to environmental growth by protecting and enhancing the local and global environment whilst going about our business activities. Our environmental policy outlines in detail our plans and timelines for carbon reduction, as well as our commitment to local communities and the natural environment.

All of our staff are able to sign up to the Cycle to Work scheme as we believe that increasing the use of bicycles will improve mental and physical health as well as supporting the environment. We are currently working on expanding this scheme to include E-Bikes to make it even more appealing and accessible.