As a producer of an entirely circular material, sustainability is deeply embedded within the company’s ethos, and they are consistently working to better their practices.
EcoVadis is the world's most trusted business sustainability ratings provider, working with over 90,000 companies across 160 countries, within over 200 industries. After receiving silver standard in 2018, Allied Glass decided to push themselves to drastically improve their sustainability credentials to achieve gold and have made significant developments to do so.
To drive increased recycling rates Allied has worked closely with supply partners as well as working in collaboration with other glass manufacturers and trade federations such as British Glass and FEVE. By moving to renewable electricity sources, Allied have reduced their carbon emissions by 33,000 tonnes and are continually developing their sites to be less energy intensive. They are investing in water recovery and recycling systems to lower the impact of their cooling operations and have introduced processes which have allowed them to increase the recycling of their general waste up to 90% and have reduced waste generated by secondary packaging by 58%.
Notable statistics of improvement made within their sites include:
- 43% increase in post-customer cullet
- 18% fewer raw materials consumed
- 5% reduction in CO2 per tonne
- 100% of Allied electrical requirement supplied by renewable sources
- 68% reduction in accident frequency
David Kirk – Quality Systems Manager & Head of Decoration said: “We are delighted to see that all our hard work has been affirmed by obtaining the gold standard. Sustainability is a big topic sweeping through the industry and it’s important to remember that it effects all our day-to-day lives. We are incredibly proud to be consistently pushing ourselves to be industry leaders and hope to set an example for how the future of glass manufacture should be.”
After the company produced its Sustainability Report early in 2021, enough steps had been taken for them to go for EcoVadis Gold. Within every section of review including, environment, labour and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement, Allied has increased their score dramatically. The company have also set strong, ambitious targets for 2025 with a big focus on the amount of recycled glass used and resource efficiencies.