Case Study: Natgraph’s Sustainability Journey
Natgraph is a vertically integrated manufacturing company based in Nottinghamshire, UK which manufactures advanced drying technology, delivering innovative solutions and optimum energy efficiency across a wide range of precision-dependent applications such as; renewable energy, bio-medical sensors, printed electronics and print finishing, to name only a few.
Natgraph machinery is both energy-intensive and shipped globally so we must have Carbon Literacy at the forefront of our operation to ensure that we are doing everything in our power to lower our CO2e emissions.
Before
As part of the Indutrade group of companies that have collectively decided that we were setting climate action high on the agenda. We decided to start our Carbon Literacy journey to ensure that as businesses we are taking immediate action to reduce our corporate Carbon Footprints (CCF). There is increased pressure from EU and national governments to ensure we are limiting greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.
During
Natgraph is delivering Carbon Literacy Training to all its staff members and holds one session per month to educate the team. In these sessions, round-table discussions, videos, and engaging activities are presented which ensures we cater for a variety of learning styles.
We are educating using a top-down approach, starting with the management team, team leaders then the wider team to ensure that we can support our learners in the best way possible to create their individual and group actions.
Where team members require some assistance with their pledges, we now have team leaders who are armed with the knowledge to help them create meaningful and relevant personal and group actions.
We have encountered some challenges on our journey so far such as staff members who did not believe that climate change is happening. For these members of staff, we have provided further assistance with pledges and asked them to enter the training with an open mind, in many cases we found that these team members did engage well with the session and actively participated in the activities and group discussions. In a feedback survey from one of these participants, they stated that the training was ‘eye-opening.’
After
Since undertaking Carbon Literacy Training, Natgraph has reduced our energy usage and lowered some of our costs. We recently switched to a 100% renewable energy tariff which is saving tonnes of Co2e annually. We have also installed more energy-efficient machinery in our factory which saves 1.8 tonnes of Co2e per month, you can view a video of this here.
Our workforce is now more mindful of climate change and its effects. We have noticed a positive culture shift within Natgraph as our staff work towards a common goal of achieving their group pledges.
Here you can see a graph of our carbon emissions since we started our Carbon Literacy journey ->
