Embarking on a sustainability journey is both a challenging and a rewarding experience. As Leon Paul's sustainability representative, I have the opportunity to nudge our company towards greener practices. To get an outside perspective and help us organise our thinking, we began working with Ed Brewster, a seasoned sustainability consultant. Here’s a glimpse into the steps we took to get a better initial understanding of the environmental impacts of our own operations and the lifecycles of our products. -

Understanding Our Processes

Our first step was to review our existing processes. Ed emphasised the importance of knowing our starting point before making any changes. To that end, we conducted a high-level discussion and review of the following: 

1. Manufacturing Processes: 

    - Discussed energy consumption, waste generation, and resource use.

    - Considered opportunities for using more sustainable materials and reducing waste.

2. Sales and Distribution Practices: 

    - Examined our distribution methods.

    - Looked into packaging practices to find eco-friendly alternatives.

    - Explored ways to minimise the carbon footprint of our product delivery.

3. Operations On and Off-Site:

    - Reviewed our day-to-day operations at the office and manufacturing site.

    - Assessed travel and transportation for staff and goods.

After this initial discussion, it became clear that in order to really understand our environmental impact, we had to undertake a more thorough cataloguing of our baseline material use and subsequent CO2 emissions. This will be the subject of future blog posts.