COP26 Voices

Nick Maybury, Site Manager, Alfreton

On-site sustainability
The COP26 conference has made me reflect on the work we have done in the area of sustainability at our site in Alfreton and I am incredibly proud. In 2018 the site won two Chemical Industries Association awards. One of these awards was the Environmental Leadership award which we won for replacing a raw material with a large global warming potential with water to create an environmentally friendly product for our customer. We have now replaced a whole range of products that had a large global warming potential with new systems that do not. Every 1kg of the old raw material created 1000kg of C02 and the new product creates no CO2.

We have also replaced 95% of interior and exterior lighting with low energy LED lights. The old lighting consisted of sodium and fluorescent lighting and the new LED’s are 4-8 times more energy efficient. You might expect these kind of actions from an industrial site but we have also been thinking outside our four walls! Working with the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust we have transformed part of our site into an environmental habitat for a variety of species, attracting rare butterflies, other insects, birds and small mammals. In fact, after three years work, we have now been designated a wildlife area.

My hope for COP26
I would like to see less procrastinating and more action. When action is taken it is too little and they need to be bolder and bigger with the actions taken. For example the UK Government announcement of giving a £5k subsidy for heat pumps from April 2022 is not nearly big enough in my opinion.

My hope for colleagues, friends and family
We can’t just look to others for solutions, there are many little things we can all do to help. Lots of little things certainly can add up to a large improvement. We could all eat less meat and dairy, not only is it good for your health but this contributes to a lower CO2 footprint. We could improve the houses we live in to make them more energy efficient with better insulation such as draught excluders and replacing light bulbs with more energy efficient LED bulbs. How about making sure electrical equipment at home and in the office is not left in standby when not in use overnight?

As Barack Obama said seven years ago at COP21, we are the first generation to feel the effects of climate change and we are the last that can do something about it. Let’s act now.