Sustainability

Our Sustainability Commitments

Effective management of the economic, environmental, and social impacts we make (People, Planet and Profits) is of key importance to the sustained success of our business.

Our sustainability commitments support the organisations company strategy and is aligned to ensure the desired outcomes are achieved. It will cover the period up until 2030.

Our plan is grouped into 3 priority themes with 10 major workstreams that will enable us to demonstrate and measure the deliverables.

It will focus our environmental responsibilities, commitment to our community, energy usage, health, safety and wellbeing of our employees and management of the resources we use.

Sustainability Chart

We will launch our full sustainability policy in the summer 2022 together with our education programme.

Health & Safety Compliance

We are committed to achieving the highest reasonable and practical standards of health, safety and welfare to our employees, customers and our community. This approach to improving safety extends across our supply chain and to every aspect of our business - from the way we manage sites and the way we train and equip our employees and contractors - to the safety features we install on our vehicles to protect road users.

Health, Safety and Environmental matters are continually reviewed and assessed, to not only adhere to the relevant standards, but ensure we strive to improve our systems. Our Head of Health, Safety and Environment, Peter Mole has worked in the quarrying industry since 1990 and also has a background in mechanical engineering. Pete works alongside the Senior Management Team, our Waste Manager and Operations Manager to support our sites, transport team, merchant team and head office operations, to ensure compliance.

Environmental & Recycling Initiatives

The climate crisis is a tough subject and the last 18 months have shown that. While throughout 2020 and 2021 many things have been out of our control, the climate crisis is something we can all help do something about.

Most of us already do, through small but powerful habits such as recycling. We are proud of our company contributions and have already achieved some major milestones, but like everyone we know we need to do even more. Here are some of the larger things we are doing:

1. Our picking station and inert waste screener is run on solar power

The Warrior 2100 is powered by our very own solar farm, with any excess power going to the grid as Green Energy!

2. Our main wash plant in New Milton runs mainly on electric

The plant also recycles the water it uses to wash the aggregates and uses a pond friendly flocculant to clean the water (as well as processing recycled aggregates alongside our primary aggregates).

3. Our BSI compliant concrete plant at New Milton mainly uses recycled water

Concrete is an important construction material used extensively in buildings, bridges and roads but its production requires large amounts of water. Therefore, making use of recycled rainwater reduces its impact on the environment and local water sources.

4. Our Wareham Quarry could be powered solely by wind

Being a clean fuel source, this will not release any pollution or produce any waste during operation. Wind energy can also lead to an overall reduction in carbon emissions.

5. Our Step It Up ambition for zero waste to landfill

We are committed to investing in technologies that will enable us to achieve ZERO waste to landfill.

With our ISO 14001 accreditation for environmental management and forthcoming launch of a company sustainability strategy, we will be focusing on more ways we can help our climate.

Waste Management

Recycling Infographic

Environmental Management System

Each site operates an Environmental Management System (EMS) based on the principles of ISO 14001:2015 and we have a dedicated Health, Safety and Environmental Manager overseeing and supporting the site teams across the entire business. This system allows all operations from our sites, quarries, waste facilities and offices to be managed in line with stringent environmental policies, legislation and procedures.

We are proud to have held the ISO 14001 accreditation for environmental management since 2010.

Environmental Projects

All of these projects have not been conditions of our planning.

We have planted over 20,000 trees and shrubs at New Milton, Downton and Pennington.
We have created two balancing ponds at Keyhaven Marshes to feed water to the marshes throughout the summer.
In partnership with Southern Water, we were awarded the Excellence in Restoration award by the then Quarry Product Association (now MPA) for our Pennington waste water treatment plant still serving Lymington and New Milton.
Extracted clay from our former Pennington quarry formed the core of the Keyhaven to Lymington Sea Wall built in the 1990s.
We opened a footpath around the seven lakes created as part of the restoration at Downton Manor Farm for the local community to use and enjoy.

Partnerships

We hold cooperate membership with The Hampshire & IOW Wildlife Trust. They are also working with us to further enhance the biodiversity at Downton Manor Farm and across our other sites/depots.

We hold a business membership with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. They are also working with us to provide an education programme for local primary schools and further develop the bee-friendly habitats we have at Downton Manor Farm.