Creating sustainable products isn’t the same as being a sustainable business
By Peter Grundy, demand planning & continuous improvement director, Liniar.
The global climate emergency is in sharp focus, and it is more important than ever that businesses, both large and small, create sustainable products using sustainable methods.
We all have our part to play, from consumers to the very largest companies and supply chains therein. We can’t delay any more, as a nation and as part of the global community – it’s everyone’s responsibility to reduce carbon emissions as quickly and as sustainably as possible.
Working towards sustainability
The journey to sustainability will be ongoing as new products, recycled raw materials and ways of working come to the fore. The world is in ‘catch up mode’ to halt the damage and the more we look at ways of saving carbon emissions and reducing the future carbon emissions of products and services, the more likely we are to reach our Net Zero target.
At Liniar, we are on a continuous improvement journey to make both our products and our operation as sustainable as possible.
Through ongoing innovation, we have designed our profiles to offer high thermal efficiency when fabricated into window and door frames and roofs, helping buildings reduce both energy consumption and carbon emissions. In addition, we use recycled PVC-U for internal components to further reduce the impact on the environment.
But it doesn’t stop there; we’re constantly reviewing our manufacturing processes, materials and facilities to reduce our carbon emissions.
There is a lot of ‘noise’ about how businesses and homeowners can be more sustainable, but not all measures are suitable. At the end of the day, a business can’t be viable without profit to reinvest.
Sustainable measures must therefore be cost effective, whilst realising a return on investment – and with a well-planned sustainability strategy, this can be achieved.
From its inception, Liniar has been at the forefront of environmentally sound practices. When designing our purpose-built facility in Denby, underground water reservoirs were to be a key component. Large tanks, situated under our extrusion hall, recycle water used during the extrusion process, saving billions of gallons of water every year.
Doing the right thing
Doing the right thing for the environment can come in many different guises – for example, using sustainable paper, encouraging customers to go paperless and introducing electric fleet vehicles, to name but a few. But, as before, it must be financially viable and sustainable for the business and not be seen as simply virtue signalling.
If you’re going to be sustainable, do it for the right reasons, not because you think it’s what people want to see and hear. Embed sustainability at the heart of your business and make sure that everyone lives and breathes it.
We regularly look at every part of Liniar’s business to see where we can implement additional sustainable measures. Products and services have moved on so much in the past few years and we encourage our supply chain partners to come to us at the earliest opportunity to show new technologies that will help further reduce our carbon footprint.
For example, we’ve installed LED lighting throughout our business including our extrusion and lamination halls, our sales and technical teams now drive electric cars and we’ve reviewed our packaging to include recycled material. We have a number of exciting projects in the pipeline and already in progress, which will take us even further along our journey.
We are investing in the future of Liniar’s products, its facility and the environment. To remain successful, this must be an integrated journey. We still have a way to go to get to a Net Zero carbon position, but we’re proud of our progress, and we’ll continue to seek out innovation that pushes us forward whilst continuing to pioneer products that help the construction industry create more sustainable buildings.
