Environment Strategy

The aims of the Group’s Environment Strategy are primarily to:

• Identify and deal with those environmental issues that are business critical so that they do not become a constraint on the business.
• Establish early and continuing compliance with emerging environmental legislation.
• Maintain ISO14001 certification
• Ensure that the approach to compliance and improvements delivers cost saving and efficiency gains.
• Improve environmental performance by ensuring accountability for environmental matters are an integral part of the day-to-day management of operational activities.
• Devise meaningful measures and targets against which to monitor performance.

Over the next few years it is anticipated that there will be a significant increase in output from our manufacturing facility in Burneside. As a consequence there will be a corresponding increase in energy consumption, water abstraction and waste generation. This expansion will take place against the background of increasingly tighter regulatory control by Government agencies. The Group’s location on the edge of the Lake District National Park and on the River Kent, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a European Site, Special Area of Conservation, will ensure that its activities will come under close scrutiny. In addition the rapid increase in energy costs in recent years brings consumption and conservation of energy into sharp business focus particularly when weighed against the background of increasing manufacturing output. Unless managed effectively, a number of energy and environmental issues could constrain the Group from meeting its strategic objectives.