Chemring recognises that it operates processes and consumes energy that directly and indirectly impacts the environment. By requiring all facilities to achieve certification to the environmental management system ISO14001 external verifiers ensure that we have appropriate operational procedures and continual improvement programmes in place.
Our ISO14001 programme requires that all sites have their own goals and objectives which are very much focused on local aspects and impacts. However, we continue to monitor key environmental data at Group level - specifically energy consumption - to allow us to derive CO2 emissions - and waste.
Waste
Our total waste volumes are dominated by a caustic etching process at our Alloy Surfaces facility which prepares metal products for coating. The waste is sold to a third party who is able to use it as feedstock for waste water treatment. This has eliminated the discharge of 6,177 tonnes of process water to local sewer systems significantly reducing the need for the third party to purchase neutralisation materials.
Our total non-recycled waste in the year, excluding 2008 acquisitions was:
| Non hazardous |
1,027 tonnes |
| Hazardous |
1,425 tonnes |
| Total |
2,452 tonnes |
CO2 emissions
In order to better understand our CO2 sources we monitored car and air travel throughout the year to gauge the size of this impact against the more easily accessible utilities data. The year of data collection revealed that the total from travel sources was 2.77% of our total CO2 emissions and yet the data capture was difficult and time consuming. Thus we are not going to collect this data in the coming year but may return and check it again at some stage in the future. Our major source is indirect emission from electrical power generation and the businesses all have goals to reduce their consumption.
Our total emissions increased by 15% in a year in which we have seen turnover increase by 36% through acquisition and organic growth. Whilst this reduction in intensity is pleasing, we will increase our efforts to address energy conservation and thus indirect emissions.
Our total emissions, excluding 2008 acquisitions, in carbon dioxide equivalents was:
| Source |
FY 2006 - 7 |
FY 2007 - 8 |
| Electricity (tonnes CO2) |
21,556 |
27,131 |
| Gas (tonnes CO2) |
11,931 |
12,384 |
| Oil (tonnes CO2) |
2,878 |
2,351 |
| Total (tonnes CO2) |
36,365 |
41,866 |
Water
In the new financial year we will for the first time monitor water consumption. Dependant upon what we find we may establish targets and improvement programmes.
Superfund
In 2008 we acquired Scot Inc, based in Downers Grove, Illinois, USA. We were aware at the time of acquisition that the Downers Grove area has ‘Superfund’ status under the US contaminated land (CERCLA) regime and appropriate financial arrangements have been made. We are working with an external consultancy to ensure that all external obligations are satisfied.