Balancing Planet, People, and Profit - Our holistic approach to sustainability

Sustainability is an increasingly important consideration in today’s world, both from a business and also a personal angle. For many people there is an unspoken desire to leave things in a better state than they found them. As our environment changes, this is becoming an increasingly tangible imperative if we are to allow our own and future generations to enjoy a long and sustainable existence.

From a business perspective, sustainability needs to be viewed holistically and a balanced approach adopted to avoid the situation where positive intentions in one area lead to unintended consequences in another.

At Bensons we consider sustainability from the perspective of the Triple Bottom Line, a well-established and increasingly applicable model that considers sustainability from the perspective of Planet, People and Profit. The positive and negative impacts of the actions we take need to be fully evaluated across the three when setting a strategy.

Focusing on our impact on the Planet, Bensons is already well on the way to our goal of becoming a carbon neutral business, and in time, Net Zero. Historically reducing CO₂ emissions was often a personal mission. With the changes in the energy market, energy efficiency is now also a financial need.

At Bensons, reducing our energy consumption and CO₂ emissions has been an ongoing activity for several years:

• Modern, energy efficient gas boilers were installed in 2014
• Company vehicles were transitioned to hybrids in 2015
• On-site electrical vehicle charging points were installed in 2018
• Low energy lighting fitted throughout the factory and offices in 2018
• All windows up-dated to modern, double glazing in 2019
• A bike to work scheme for employees was introduced in 2020
  
• Solar panels were installed in 2023 to reduce our reliance on grid electricity
• Hybrid vehicles replaced by electric vehicles in 2023

In addition, we are long time proponents of recycling with around 85% of our waste recycled each year.

Viewed from the perspective of people (our customers), the control panels we design and manufacture support an energy efficient, low carbon economy and are also manufactured using high-quality components to reduce waste and increase the lifespan of the control panel.

• We work with market leaders in the distributed energy sector, building control panels that enable combined head and power systems to provide low carbon power around the UK.
• For many years we have worked with Danfoss to install variable speed drives in control panels across many sectors, enabling the efficient operation of motors.
• We now work in the Electric Vehicle sector, building control panels that underpin the roll-out of charging infrastructure across the UK.

Looking to the future, our intention is to become first a carbon neutral manufacturing business and in time a Net Zero operation.

The first phase of this major undertaking is underway as we are engaged in developing a strategy which in turn will lead to a plan that we can commit to as an organisation. Our next step is to map our CO₂ emissions accurately and to develop a delivery plan to take us forwards. This is a goal that we have set ourselves to complete in 2023.