Sustainability Award Nomination

Building a Greener Business, Together

Since our change in ownership in 2018, sustainability hasn’t just been a buzzword, it has underpinned how we have run the business. In addition to having a minimal impact on the environment, a sustainable company must also be profitable, because otherwise it will not last, and it will not be sustainable. As a skills-based manufacturer, we can only be as good as our people. Hence, we look at sustainability from the perspective of the triple bottom line,

• People
• Planet, and
• Profit

On our sustainability journey, we have worked to create an optimal environment for our team to be the best possible versions of themselves. The choices that we have made – switching to 100% renewable energy, installing a solar PV system, and moving to hybrid then electric vehicles – are all down to a genuine desire to do better by our team and the environment around us.

Practical Changes, Real Results

We have put a lot of effort into the practical upgrades that have helped to make Bensons a great place to work. Energy-efficient lighting and high-quality double glazing have transformed our factory floor. It is brighter, more comfortable and a better place to work. There is a real source of pride knowing that over 40% of the electricity that we use is generated from our own roof, and that we recycle over 85% of our waste.

Breaking New Ground in Clean Energy 

What has been really rewarding is seeing our environmental work help to open doors in the fast-growing clean energy sector. Since we sharpened our focus on sustainability, we have delivered control panels and feeder pillars for close to 100 EV charging sites, 10 commercial solar farms, challenging BioGas CHP systems and now hydrogen power plants. It has helped to set us apart from other manufacturers who have not made these changes yet. More importantly, it has given the team new challenges and opportunities to develop skills and processes we might never have tackled otherwise. 

Proud of Our Team – and What Comes Next

The nomination for this award is down to our team; we are constantly learning and improving together, focused on making our workplace, our products, and our impact even better. Being shortlisted for this award is a testament to the effort, care and dedication that every member of the team brings. And this is not the end of the journey; we are already looking ahead to further investments in the building, more sustainable supply chain choices, and smarter use of the energy that we generate. 

We have used this to support our successful entry into the low-carbon energy sector, successfully bringing in over £1.5m of new business, which in turn has allowed us to develop new skills that have helped to make us more profitable.

Most recently, we have carried out a CO2 footprint study to quantify our emissions, baseline our current performance and inform our next steps as we seek to become first a carbon-neutral business, and potentially in time a net-zero business. 

I hope you find our submission informative. It has been quite a journey, and there is still more that we can do.