Letter From The Front...


WE CAN’T FORGET ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY IN THIS ECONOMIC CLIMATE



Chris Harrop, Marshalls

The economy is hitting all areas of our industry hard. Consumers aren’t spending as much as in previous years and business as well as consumer confidence is very low. But does that mean we should forget about the important issues? In my opinion, we need to make sure we don’t take our focus away from the issue of sustainability and especially the environment and climate change, for the sake of our long term future.


Its important at this point to define what I mean by sustainability – its not just green issues. Sustainability covers the triple bottom line; Social progress which recognises the needs of everyone, effective protection of the environment and maintenance of stable levels of economic growth. Our task as responsible business leaders is to balance these three elements

My company, Marshalls plc produces hard landscaping products and services for consumers gardens and driveways and for the streets and public spaces we all use. We aim to help our customers transform their environments (their landscapes) and create better ones. Ones that are better socially, environmentally and economically.

We are pressured by consumers and government to focus on certain aspects of sustainability but potentially at the exclusion of others.

The environmental impact of hard landscaping products shouldn’t be ignored and it’s during times like these that environmental issues need to remain high on the agenda. Of course, we still need to make sure our products and our services are up to standard and this year more than ever we’ll have to make the buying decision even easier for our customers. But climate change isn’t going away and we all need to make changes to how we run our businesses. An 80% reduction in UK emissions by 2050 may seem along way away but the scale of the task is huge.

It’s not just Government policy or media attention pushing for change – consumers are becoming more environmentally aware and they understand that their buying choices have an impact on the future of the planet. So how do we go about it? The small changes can bring huge benefits. Innovating in new product lines, offering low carbon products or looking at ways to reduce energy use – they all add up. Sustainable urban drainage paving is a great example of a product that benefits the consumer and the environment.

At Marshalls, we recently unveiled the carbon footprints of every product in our domestic range – a total of 503 products – and I urge others in business to look at their product and business carbon footprints to see how they can reduce their impact. It’s not easy and it takes time and effort, but ultimately we all need to take carbon reduction seriously.

The commitment within Marshalls’ carbon labelling scheme with the Carbon Trust is that over the next two years, we have to reduce the carbon emissions of our products. Even by reducing a product’s carbon footprint by 4kg per m2, in terms of an average driveway it is equal to 240kg. This emission is comparable to driving an average family car from Land’s End to John O’Groats (837 miles).

Incidentally there is a direct link between reducing carbon footprints and reduced energy usage and thus cost. We also now have clear evidence that our Ethical stance on importing stone products from India and China whilst increasing our costs has resulted in significant market share gains that more then negate the cost implications.

There’s no doubt that 2009 will bring more uncertainty and difficult decisions, but conveniently forgetting the issues of sustainability; especially ethical sourcing; climate change and the environment is a detriment to the future of our businesses.

The following viewpoints on this piece have been submitted by independent individuals. The views expressed are those of the individual author and are not necessarily shared by The idm Group.