West Sussex County, District and Borough Councils wanted to highlight the importance of the business transition to 'net zero and beyond' and to help ensure that ‘no business is left behind’ as our economy shifts to low carbon.
The Councils, along with some external help from Brighton based, Low Carbon Leaders, reviewed Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) business across the county to see who could provide a strong business case to encourage and inspire other businesses to act against carbon. In addition, the Councils also wanted to highlight how West Sussex is leading the way in terms of reducing carbon and being more sustainable.
Deborah Urquhart, chair of the West Sussex (Councils') Joint Climate Change Board highlighted factors the selection panel prioritised on, "Collaboration and shared learning are key and we have been working with a group of exemplar businesses who are leading the way with cutting their carbon emissions. They have worked with us to identify the best ways to support MSMEs to make changes and realise the business benefits of doing so, which include winning new contracts, satisfying their supply chains’ needs, attracting new talent, accelerating innovation and cutting ongoing running costs."
Laker Builders Merchant was selected to represent Crawley for our commitment to reducing their CO2 emissions, which form part of Laker's Green Ambitions. As a small independent builders' merchant, Laker are leading the way to rapidly reducing their carbon footprint.
Laker believe that building a successful and profitable builders merchant does not need to come at the expense of the environment and they have taken several steps to drastically reduce their carbon quickly as well as focus on sustainability, recycling and upcycling.
The biggest impact has been to embrace technology. In a historically 'old school' industry that uses mountains of paper, Laker turned to technology to help streamline their business operations. This reduced their digital CO2 impact by replacing many systems, such as Accounting, CRM, ERP systems with one single integrated platform that does it all and also offers scalability and flexibility to tailor the platform to their requirements.
In turn, this has allowed Laker to move to paperless inventory management and hugely reduce paper in their customer deliveries, where their drivers now use integrated tablets for signatures and photographic verification of completed deliveries that are updated to their platform in real time. In addition, Laker have reduced the use of paper overall, by moving to digital for all our administration and HR requirements. Overall, paper usage across the entire business was cut by 80%, reduced by approximately 100 reams of paper. And with one sheet of paper equating to almost 5g of CO2eq, according to Science Direct then Laker have reduced our carbon emissions by approximately 125 tonnes CO2eq just by reducing their paper usage.
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Laker have also been working through their Preferred Suppliers List to ensure that they are working with businesses who hold the same ethos so that their supplier partnerships are driving down their carbon emissions together. From a business operations perspective, Laker incorporated finance, facilities, waste and consumables, changing out products and selecting suppliers based not only on the commercially beneficial partner, but also on their green credentials.
One example reflecting this change in approach is where Laker worked with their waste supplier to introduce recycling across the business for dry recycling, including cardboard, paper, glass and plastic. This has saved an annual 65 tonnes of cardboard and plastic from landfill and reduced their carbon emissions by a further 128 tonnes CO2eq annually.
A quick win for Laker was to replace the fleet of diesel and LPG gas forklifts with electric forklifts across all branches, instantly reducing carbon emissions by over 36.4 tonnes with the added benefit of reducing the air and noise pollution in their warehouse, improving the working environment for their warehouse team.
Discussions with manufacturers are focused on working together to provide competitively priced low carbon alternatives for building material and challenging them to reduce their transport packaging (less plastic wrap) and develop recyclable product packaging (cardboard instead of plastic) and provide support with educating their sales team, who can then offer alternatives to Laker’s customers.
Laker say that because of the work they're doing to reduce carbon and be more sustainable, they have won new customers who have a shared ethos and also value the planet over profit.
The Laker team have been collaborating with Manor Royal Business Improvement District, one of South East England's premier employment hubs and the largest business district in the Gatwick Diamond, to restore nature and biodiversity in their immediate area, whilst also giving back to the community.
A longer-term project that focuses on restoring parts of their demise back to nature, by creating 'pocket parks' extending the many mini parks that the Manor Royal BID have been creating throughout the area. Laker's aim is to share these spaces with colleagues and peers who work in the area, providing a range of places to sit, socialise and interact. Steve Sawyer, Executive Director at Manor Royal BID commented "I can't help but be impressed by Laker’s genuine commitment to reducing their carbon footprint…They are also invested in the local business community looking at ways they can collaborate on a larger scale for the benefit of the wider area in which they work."
With the help of Manor Royal BID these spaces will incorporate more nature with new mass planting, including planter boxes, healthy native trees and implement sustainable drainage system (SuDS) to solve existing drainage problems and add to the biodiversity of the area.
Following selection, a video was created to share Laker’s low carbon story locally and nationally. Laura Gelder-Robertson, Assessor at University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership (CISL) Business Net Zero Course and consultant for Low Carbon Leaders was part of the team that shortlisted Laker and she commented that a small builders merchant such as us "…can put people and planet before profit and lead the way in decarbonisation.” And that we were “…also keen to share their successes and collaborate with local partners to keep the momentum going on achieving Net Zero..."
The videos have been published now and available on YouTube - youtu.be/Dt7l8FVHqRw.
For Laker the journey doesn't end there and they have announced that they are aiming to be Net Zero by 2030. Steve Robinson, Laker’s Managing Director confirms, "Having made the decision not to put profit before the environment is very satisfying and exciting…Collectively, we have the power to make change faster and leave a better world."
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