Spotlight on: Sustainability

Genuit has sustainability at its core. For us, sustainability is not an after-thought, or something that comes after everything else has been taken into account.

Our strategy to grow the business is focused on addressing issues related to climate change and making the built environment more resilient. Whether that means catering for ever more frequent extreme rainfall or leading the transition to lower carbon heating and cooling, we are addressing climate change and its consequences. The built environment currently accounts for approximately 40% of the UK’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, therefore we want to grow by being the lowest carbon supplier of choice for our customers.

Our impact

As well as supporting our customers in the transition to a net-zero built environment, we are aware of what we can do ourselves. We are on a trajectory to become net-zero by 2050 and in 2023, we reduced our absolute carbon impact by 33% compared to the prior year across scopes 1, 2, & scope 3: category one. Whilst some of this reduction reflects volumes being lower, there were also improvements in energy and carbon efficiencies.

Last year, we also became the first amongst our UK peers to have SBTi approval for our near-term carbon reduction targets, which amongst other commitments will see us reduce our scopes 1 & 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30% by 2027 compared to 2021. So far, our progress has seen us:

• Reduce CO2e emissions intensity by 48.6% from a 2019 base year (scopes 1 & 2)
• Reduction in absolute scopes 1 & 2 GHG emissions by 24% from a 2021 base year
• Purchase 91% of electricity from renewable sources
• Have nearly a third (32%) of suppliers by emissions covering purchased goods and services with their own science-based targets

These targets support our broader sustainability framework which focuses on advancing the circular economy, develop sustainable solutions, tackle climate change and invest in an engaged and diverse workforce.

Moving beyond the immediate term, Genuit has a long-term plan in place which commits us to emission reductions in line with net-zero with the Science-Based Target initiative (SBTi), and we are one of the only organisations within our industry to have a public Pledge to Net Zero. We have responded to the SBTi’s urgent call for corporate climate action by committing to align with 1.5ºC and net-zero through the Business Ambition for 1.5ºC campaign. In December 2023 we submitted to SBTi for validation our long-term reduction plan for a 90% reduction in scopes 1, 2 & 3 emissions by 2050.

Driving a circular economy

Central to reducing our carbon impact is our focus on the move towards a more circular economy for raw materials. We see a future where less is discarded without being re-used or recycled, and new products are increasingly made with recycled materials that have already fulfilled a useful role in the economy and society.

We have adopted circular economy thinking by prioritising the use of recycled polymers in our manufacturing sites and setting targets to maximise their use. As a secondary consequence, these recycled polymers are commonly lower embedded carbon materials. Therefore, as we increase our use of recycled polymers to support a transition to a circular economy, we also benefit by decarbonising our supply chain and realising a reduction in our scope 3 GHG emissions.

See a video of our recycling plant

We understand both the need for a rapid transition to a low carbon economy and the need to promote circular economy thinking and how these offer opportunities and challenges for our business activities. In the last year, our use of recycled materials has increased from 2022 and we now have more than 49.2% of all raw materials supplied from the secondary products market.

Genuit aims to use the most sustainable material for a given application and we see bio-materials and decarbonised virgin materials beginning to emerge as viable alternatives, alongside traditional virgin and recycled sources of raw materials. We continue to review and investigate how these new materials can support our transition to net-zero.

You can read more about our sustainability strategy and key targets in our latest Annual Report.