Saint-Gobain has awarded three of its brands, Jewson, Artex and Jewson Civils Frazer, a combined £650,000 as part of its INVEST Carbon fund – to support the decarbonisation of its businesses on a journey to net zero carbon by 2050.
The INVEST Carbon fund is one of two carbon funds available to businesses and employees to suggest ways in which carbon can be reduced from its activities.
The three projects include leading distributor Artex in Ruddington, Nottinghamshire which secured £300,000 to fund the installation of a biomass heating system to completely replace and decarbonise the site’s heating system. It is estimated this improvement will reduce CO2 emissions by 150 tonnes a year.
Jewson has received £250,000 to spend on its Wishaw branch in North Lanarkshire. The funds will be used to install high performing insulation, LED lighting, solar photovoltaics and an air source heat pump to significantly reduce CO2 emissions by 19 tonnes a year.
Jewson Civils Frazer has also received over £100,000 of funding to replace existing electric heating systems with air source heat pumps in four of its UK sites, with the aim of saving 56 tonnes of CO2 a year.
In addition to these investments, colleagues in the UK and Ireland have been submitting their ideas to reduce non-industrial CO2 emissions; from small actions to larger projects. These proposals were shortlisted by Saint-Gobain’s Net Zero Carbon Colleague Assembly and submitted to the Carbon Fund where a committee chose the most impactful winning projects.
Mike Chaldecott, Chief Executive, Saint-Gobain UK and Ireland, commented: “Our organisation remains committed to reducing its carbon emissions and Making the World a Better Home.
“Our Carbon Funds encourage our employees to come up with innovative ideas for change from small every-day actions to high-impact investments. As they deliver their projects later this year our colleagues will be making tangible differences to their work environments and climate change. The funds will grow in size over the years ahead – for every tonne of carbon saved by the business an extra €50 will be added to the size of the fund”.
Saint-Gobain is finalising its zero-carbon roadmap which will set out a path for each of its businesses to meet medium term Science Based Targets for 2030 and the ultimate goal of net zero carbon by 2050.
