Environmental Policy

Mission statement

NovaCast recognises that it has a responsibility to the environment beyond legal and regulatory requirements. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and continually improving our environmental performance as an integral part of our business strategy and operating methods, with regular review points. We will encourage customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders to do the same.

We’ll check to make sure we’re disposing of our waste properly and that our activities:

1. protect the environment by preventing or reducing the impact our activities have

2. meet our compliance obligations

3. are thought about from procurement to end of life with the environment in mind.

Effective environmental management is critical to our overall business success and for continuing improvement of our environmental performance. This means operating with integrity, controlling, and minimising potentially negative impacts and maximising our positive impact wherever possible.

Responsibility

The quality department is responsible for ensuring that the environmental policy is implemented. However, all employees have a responsibility in their area to ensure that the aims and objectives of the policy are met.

Policy aims

We endeavour to:

• Comply with and exceed all relevant regulatory requirements
• Continually improve and monitor environmental performance
• Continually improve and reduce environmental impacts
• Incorporate environmental factors into business decisions
• Increase employee awareness and training
• Reduce, reuse and recycle waste produced across the organisation
• Use water efficiently within the organisation
• Comply with the WASH pledge that we have signed
• Strive to procure sustainable products, materials, and contractor services
• Remain committed to the prevention of pollution and promotion of biodiversity
• Ensure compliance with legal and other requirements and comply with the CDP Carbon Disclosure Policy & Ecovadis.
• Engage our stakeholders and form partnerships to promote positive environmental practice
• Continue to reflect on what we, as a progressive organisation, can contribute to the sustainability challenge

Paper

• We will minimise the use of paper in the office.
• We will reduce packaging as much as possible.
• We will seek to buy recycled and recyclable paper products.
• We will reuse and recycle all paper where possible.

Energy and water

• We will seek to reduce the amount of energy used as much as possible.
• Lights and electrical equipment will be switched off when not in use.
• Heating will be adjusted with energy consumption in mind.
• The energy consumption and efficiency of new products will be taken into account when purchasing.

Office supplies

• We will evaluate if the need can be met in another way.
• We will evaluate if renting/sharing is an option before purchasing equipment.
• We will evaluate the environmental impact of any new products we intend to purchase.
• We will favour more environmentally friendly and efficient products wherever possible.
• We will reuse and recycle everything we are able to.

Transportation

• We will reduce the need to travel, restricting to necessity trips only.
• We will promote the use of travel alternatives such as e-mail or video/phone conferencing.
• We will make additional efforts to accommodate the needs of those using public transport or bicycles.
• We will favour ‘green’ vehicles and maintain them rigorously to ensure ongoing efficiency.
• We will not return rejected goods to China in the aim to reduce carbon footprint. Instead, rejected goods will be scrapped and recycled in the UK.

Maintenance and cleaning

• Cleaning materials used will be as environmentally friendly as possible.
• Materials used in office refurbishment will be as environmentally friendly as possible.
• We will only use licensed and appropriate organisations to dispose of waste.
• 100% of our waste will be recycled, we will not send any waste to Landfill.

Monitoring and improvement

• We will comply with and exceed all relevant regulatory requirements.
• We will continually improve and monitor environmental performance, while complying with the Ecovadis platform.
• We will continually improve and reduce environmental impacts.
• We will incorporate environmental factors into business decisions.
• We will increase employee awareness through training.
• We will review this policy and any related business issues at our monthly management meetings.

Culture

• We will involve staff in the implementation of this policy, for greater commitment and improved performance.
• We will update this policy at least once annually in consultation with staff and other stakeholders where necessary.
• We will provide staff with relevant environmental training.
• We will work with suppliers, contractors, and sub-contractors to improve their environmental performance.
• We will use local labour and materials where available to reduce CO2 and help the community.

Recycling Metal

Foundries are one of the best examples of resource efficiency and sustainability. Castings implement the recycling concept almost completely.  Once their lifecycle is over castings are recycled; they are melted down to manufacture a new casting.  Old and new scrap metal is used to produce castings too.  About 95% of the sand required to make moulds is recycled as well.  Modern processing systems make this possible.

Commitments

We are fully committed to our WASH pledge and Ecovadis.

We will seek to make improvements as recommended by the Ecovadis platform.  This is the responsibility of Kim Little & Richard Phillips.

We will seek to make improvements to our WASH assessment and review this assessment quarterly.  Our aim is to score 2 for all categories of the WASH self-assessment tool. This is the responsibility of Kim Little & Richard Phillips.

Our target for Co2 emissions is to engage with suppliers so we can have a full calculation for our scope 3 emissions.  Once we have full transparency of our scope 3 emissions, we can then set a target for carbon reduction. In March 2024 will we invest in Solar panels for Unit 8 in a bid to cut our energy consumption.  By investing in Solar panels we should avoid 11,454 kg/year Co2 emissions.

We currently calculate our scope 1, 2 & partially scope 3 Co2 emissions and it is the responsibility of Kim Little to update this information monthly.  We are working with SWMAS who have benchmarked our carbon footprint and are helping us provide a roadmap to Carbon neutrality.

We are fully engaged with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), and it is the responsibility of Kim Little to answer the questionnaire annually.  Due to the size of our company, we answer the minimum version of the questionnaire which means we do not get a score.

From 1^st Oct 2023 we have switched Electricity suppliers to 100% renewable energy.