It’s important to us to leave a lasting, positive impact on our world – that’s both the community we’re based in, and our industry.
As a transport and logistics business, it would be easy for us to sweep the subject of carbon emissions under the rug. Making excuses that goods need to be transported. However, at Mitchells, we want to leave a positive impact on our world. This means looking at the hard truth of the effect we are having on our planet.
We decided we wanted to make a difference and set goals to help offset our carbon footprint. However, this wasn’t enough! We wanted to create change now instead of setting goals for years to come.
That’s why Mitchells are now Carbon Footprint Certified.
Making a change now
“We should take every opportunity to reduce our carbon footprint as fast as possible”
Richard Montgomery, Managing Director of Mitchells
Over the next few months, we now plan to offset our carbon footprint. Carbon offsetting is a great way to compensate for the emissions that we cannot reduce, such as our trucks. We can do this by funding an equivalent carbon dioxide saving elsewhere.
We are currently looking into schemes to help us offset our carbon footprint and plan to become a neutral operator within 5 years by reducing our footprint by 20% a year.
Working together for a better tomorrow
During 2021 we were assessed by Carbon Footprint Ltd to gain a better understanding of how we could improve our carbon emissions. This took six months of data collection from our truck fuel usage to our employee’s commute to and from work.
A breakdown of our carbon footprint for 2021:
Vehicle fuel usage – 92.4%
Commuting – 4.3%
Other (Site electricity & company car travel) – 3.3%
Our 2021 total tonnes of CO2e: 3174.17
With over one million miles travelled by our trucks in 2021, this isn’t going to be an easy task. We’ve set our sights high to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Our plans for the future:
- Offset the GHG emissions created within this data period to become carbon neutral.
- Investigate the use of alternative fuels to aid the transition to electric vehicles.
- When leasing/purchasing new vehicles, continue transitioning to electric vehicles.
- Our intention is to replace and electrify our fleet over the next 15 years.
What action have we taken so far:
- We have replaced our diesel forklift fleet with electric forklifts.
- We have introduced LED/PIR lighting throughout our build and yard.
- We have invested in the latest reduced-emission diesel engine vehicles.
Ready for the challenge
We look forward to the day we can be carbon neutral but until then we are ready to take on the challenge to provide our customers with the best options and do our part to make a positive impact on the world.
“We don’t want to be the weakest link for anyone else’s business”
Richard Montgomery, Managing Director of Mitchells
