AWARD-WINNERS BTS ARE NET ZERO HEROES
Aycliffe Business Make Your Mark Awards
ENVIRONMENT AWARD
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THE FINALISTS
NEWTON PRESS
Ebac manufacturing manager Carol Jordan presented the Environment Award to Marcia Atkinson of BTS Facades & Fabrications, who won the award for a second year.
AWARD-WINNERS BTS ARE NET ZERO HEROES
Companies are increasingly having to do their bit for the environment – but BTS Facades & Fabrications continues to do more than most.
For the second year running, the façade and rainscreen product firm has bagged the Make Your Mark Environment award – testament to its ongoing determination to move towards zet zero.
As part of its journey, the £ 10.4m turnover company, which began in a rented unit in Spennymoor before moving to its state-ofthe-art facility on Aycliffe Business Park, has introduced a major carbon reduction programme.
Measures so far have included a zero-wasteto-landfill policy, a biomass boiler, two electric company cars, salary sacrifice schemes for electric vehicles and cycles, energy-efficient lighting and a fleet of three lithium-powered electric fork trucks.
All the firm’ s waste is bailed and sold on, while a new energy contract has recently been signed, ensuring electricity supply is only from renewable sources.
And yet despite all that, the company feels there’ s still more to do.
Finance director Marcia Atkinson said:“ We’ re all striving to get to that net zero and
PREVIOUS WINNERS 2024: BTS FACADES & FABRICATIONS 2022: ROMAN improve every aspect of the company.“ We aren’ t going to be net zero for 2025 now, which is what we hoped to be, because with the current economic climate, we’ ve had to invest more within the company.
“ But we are still looking at it and every month, we still have targets we’ ve got to hit. So while we’ re not as far on as we wanted to be, we’ re still striving for it.”
Saying she was“ absolutely stunned” to be picking up the award for the second year in a row, Marcia added:“ We’ re working very hard, from the bottom tier to the top – we’ re always striving to improve what we’ re doing and everything towards the environment.
“ When we got our carbon certificates, it was a hard slog to get there from being in manufacturing because it can be a dirty industry.
“ We were getting led down garden paths and not getting anywhere so we had to learn what we were doing at each stage – the three tiers of what you had to do to get through to become net zero – it was very difficult, but it will always be part of what we do.
“ From the very beginning, we’ ve been very invested in protecting the environment for our younger generation – for their sakes, we’ ve all got to act now.”
Family-run Newton Press has installed 90 solar panels on the roof of the firm’ s Blue Bridge Centre premises, while a biomass boiler has heated the entire building since 2015.
The family-run firm uses cutting-edge production machines and technology to ensure energy consumption is minimised. Newton Press uses environmentallyfriendly vegetable-based inks – promoting a non-toxic, safe production process – and runs a cohort of six electric vehicles, including an electric van used for local deliveries. All vehicles are charged onsite from its solar-produced power.
The business also offsets its carbon footprint with the Woodland Trust and has enabled the planting of thousands of trees over the years, while it also recycles more than 95 % of its waste.
HUSQVARNA UK
By utilising Husqvarna’ s Sustainovate 2025 strategy, the Aycliffe site has implemented many green energy solutions and has already reached its target to reduce its carbon emissions by 35 % across the value chain.
Husqvarna is shifting to low carbon solutions in every aspect of product lifecycle by creating partnerships with suppliers and customers to prevent hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere every year.
Husqvarna uses 100 % renewable electricity at its Aycliffe plant to manufacture its range of robotic lawnmowers, and has invested in some of the latest energy-efficient machinery, lighting and equipment available which not only reduces CO2 emissions but supports cost saving and shows Husqvarna’ s commitment to building a sustainable future.
26 | Aycliffe Business