Camlab are a small organisation, meaning we have a limited ability to dramatically affect our emissions, but we are very efficient and have looked at several ways to reduce our emissions.
Emissions
Camlab have been working on reducing our emissions since 2013. We have seen a significant reduce in our emissions since then of 63%, with a 29% reduction in our carbon emission from 2019 due to Covid-19 impacting our travel in 2020 and 2021. Our approach to reducing our emissions was simple in that we identified each business area/process that generated significant emissions. Our 4 key areas that we identified were - electricity and gas, company cars, other business travel and waste.
Camlab emission trend from 2013-2020 can be seen on the right.
Electricity and Gas
Electricity - In 2014 Camlab had solar panels installed on the roof of our business premise. In the last 12 months the panels have produced 100.22MWh compared to our consumption of 100.65MWh, which shows that we are 99.6% self sustainable. To help combat our electricity usage, solar and LED lighting with motion sensors have been installed throughout our premise.
Gas - Along with the solar panels, air sourced heat pumps were installed on site. This helps reduce the gas boiler usage and emissions as the heat pumps are being run by solar generated electricity.
Company cars
Our fleet has mainly converted to electric/hybrid vehicles greatly reducing fuel usage. Camlab also provide free of charge charging points for all staff for use outside of the company car scheme.
Camlab company car type from 2017 to 2021
Other business travel
Camlab have reduced travel by operating more remote meetings. Covid-19 has accelerated this programme and we now expect a greater portion of meetings to be held remotely, avoiding travel.
Waste
A large portion of our shipments out from our warehouse are now packaged using recycled boxes. We have taken steps to ensure any waste is recycled where possible. Within our business premise, there are different bins on site to help separate our waste and ensure we recycle as much as possible. Our approach is refuse, reduce, recycle or replace.
Percentage of recycled shipping packaging in 2020 (41%) and 2021 (52%)
Other improvements
Camlab continuing our drive in the following indirect areas:
- We are working with our UK based supply chain to minimise dual handling and dual delivery of a wide range of products. We remain able to reflects stocks available within our business system but the product remains at the UK manufacturer until required. It is then delivered direct to the customer from their warehouse.
- We have implemented a robust but effective work from home policy for all our office based employees (24 staff). This means that an employee can choose which days to work from home or the office. Most employees have moved from a 5 day week in the office to 2 days. This saves around 127,670 miles of travel to and from the office per year.
For more information on our environmental impacts and our plan, check out our environment section on our camlab.com website here.
For more information or for any queries please contact us by the contact form below, or by our contact us section on our website.
