3 minutes read 17 Aug 2021Chepstow Plant International (CPI) has long been recognised for championing positive change in the quarrying and aggregates industry.
In the last decade alone, it has proudly led the way in developing award-winning health, safety and training initiatives to ensure the workforce has the right skills and knowledge to safely conduct themselves on site.
Health and safety naturally remains an essential part of the company’s ethos and underpins the culture of the organisation. But now, with the very real spectre of climate change looming, CPI is putting decarbonisation at the heart of the business as it strives to address this critical issue and lead by example.
With the company’s ambition reflecting the UK government’s own climate change targets, which effectively commit the country to end its contribution towards global warning by 2050, CPI believes that for the quarrying and aggregates sector, more needs to be done than just planting trees or using solar panels on buildings to become carbon neutral. It just doesn’t go far enough.
When it comes to decarbonisation, CPI is committed to making continual investment in so much more than just purchasing new machinery.It’s committed to exploring and investing in sustainable practices at every touch point of the business to create a cleaner, and more environmentally friendly future. And, as with pioneering best practice in health and safety, in turn CPI’s goal is to also help clients improve their own environmental performance.
What’s more, CPI is constantly reviewing the best way to reduce long-term costs, produce less pollution and shift the industry closer to net-zero is continual investment in modern and efficient fleets of vehicles, operator efficiency training and ensure optimal machine pairings.
As a result, CPI has been implementing a range of innovative trials and initiatives to minimise its impact on the environment in an effort to achieve its net zero ambitions. Just some of the initiatives include:
- Using each asset’s telemetry information and analysing it within CPI’s analytics department to ensure that machinery is fully optimised for the job it was required to do.
- Training staff to be ‘zero carbon operators’, whilst retaining that all important ‘safety first’ mind-set, through CPI’s breakthrough in-house training and development programme, FOIL.
- Already committed over £60m towards overhauling CPI’s entire core fleet over the last three years, fully embracing Tier V engines and their reduced environmental impact.
- Adopting additional emission-reduction measures.
- Trialling new fuels to improve efficiencies and reduce environmental impact – including the trial of HVO (hydro treated vegetable oil) across two of CPI’s sites this summer.
Having laid the initial foundations, CPI is now calling on other companies in the quarrying and aggregates sector to join forces in achieving the collective responsibility of finding ways to achieve net zero together. Naturally these efforts will take time, but CPI believes that this goal is achievable – for all companies, right across the industry.
Keep an eye on this blog for regular updates on CPI’s decarbonisation initiatives, as well as company view points from the team who are championing this important issue.
By Ross Hayward
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