British luxury carmaker Bentley Motors announced this week it has become the first automotive manufacturer to earn the triple Carbon Trust Standard, having separately secured group’s Standards for Carbon, Water and Waste through significant reductions in these three key areas at its Crewe, Cheshire headquarters.Bentley joins Marks & Spencer, PwC, AkzoNobel Decorative Paints and Ireland’s ABP Food Group as one of only 11 companies to date to achieve the triple standard from the Carbon Trust, one of the world’s leading independent authorities on delivering carbon reduction and achieving greater resource efficiency.
British luxury carmaker Bentley Motors announced this week it has become the first automotive manufacturer to earn the triple Carbon Trust Standard, having separately secured group’s Standards for Carbon, Water and Waste through significant reductions in these three key areas at its Crewe, Cheshire headquarters.
Bentley joins Marks & Spencer, PwC, AkzoNobel Decorative Paints and Ireland’s ABP Food Group as one of only 11 companies to date to achieve the triple standard from the Carbon Trust, one of the world’s leading independent authorities on delivering carbon reduction and achieving greater resource efficiency.
The certification has independently verified Bentley’s environmental achievements between 2011-2013, during which the company reduced its CO2 16 percent relative to the number of cars it manufactured, reduced its water use 35.7 percent, and achieved an absolute reduction in waste.
Major projects have included the installation of over 20,000 solar panels, mounted on roofs across the factory, which have reduced CO2 generation by over 2,500 tons per year and contributed 286,200 kWh back to the national grid. Last month 20 percent of the company’s electrical requirements were generated by solar energy.
“There has been manufacturing here for nearly 80 years and customers admire the character and unique history of the site which we continue to respect,” said Michael Straughan, Bentley’s member of the board for manufacturing. “However, we have managed to also create an increasingly environmentally friendly, modern manufacturing environment and will continue to target future reductions.”
The 339,000m³ factory is home to Bentley’s engineering and manufacturing functions with 3,700 employees working on site and producing a record 10,120 cars in 2013.
Darran Messem, managing director of certification at the Carbon Trust said: “We would like to congratulate everyone at Bentley for achieving the Carbon Trust Standard and contributing to clear year-on-year reductions of carbon emissions, water use and waste outputs. We’ve also been impressed with the excellent levels of employee engagement, with Bentley employing a dedicated Environment team and colleagues across the factory acting as Environmental Champions and pro-actively identifying new ways to save valuable resources.”
The Carbon Trust has been certifying companies’ efforts to mitigate their carbon emissions since 2008; its program became more robust with the addition of its Water Standard and Waste Standard in 2013.
Published Jul 30, 2014 4pm EDT / 1pm PDT / 9pm BST / 10pm CEST