A mix of Covid-19, war in Ukraine and the lingering impacts of Brexit have pushed climate change and sustainability onto page two. But as we move into 2023, they will inexorably move to the top of page one.
There is no escaping the stark warnings coming out of COP27. All global emissions must fall between 2020 and 2025 and the reality is they are still increasing. Opening the talks, Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary General, said: “we’re on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator”.
He’s not exaggerating. The challenge is as big as it gets. It’s so big, most companies haven’t got their heads or hearts around it and are responding inappropriately with incomprehensible gobbledegook, empty soundbites, and token gestures. But today’s savvy consumers have seen this for what it is: misleading Greenwashing.
As a leading manufacturer, Freefoam is taking the challenge seriously and acknowledging our duty to monitor and reduce the impact of our business activities on the environment. We’ve taken sustainability and continuous improvement to the very root of our business. By applying Circular Economy thinking and carbon reduction approaches to all elements of our day-to-day work and projects, in conjunction with ‘Lean Manufacturing’, we’re delivering sustainable solutions for customers.
We accept the responsibility to demonstrate our credentials to customers as we continue our transition from a linear to a Circular Economy company. What does that mean? It’s a call to action to reduce, reuse and recycle, which means enabling the re-use and circulation of resources, retaining economic value, and eliminating waste. During the next 12 months we will demonstrate this by sharing our outcomes as we expand the scope of our drive towards circularity to include:
- Carbon reduction initiatives
- Collaborative projects between suppliers, converters, distributors, installers, and end users
- Shift to EV’s
- Ensuring the Circularity of PVC via investments into recycling, reusing and reducing
- Building this culture at Freefoam
Our prediction for 2023?
Sustainability and carbon reducing initiatives will have a massive impact on our product sector supply chains.