As leading innovators of architectural fabrications, balconies, structural steelworks and balustrades, at Dearneside Fabrications we believe that sustainability is pivotal to the future of the construction industry.
With days, such as today, like #WorldEnvironmentDay, we often see businesses take the opportunity to share their thoughts on environmentalism. At Dearneside, however, we know that actions speak louder than words, and that environmentalism is about more than just a day.
In this blog, we take a look at what sustainable measures we have taken over the years, and look ahead to what we aim to achieve in the future.
Fitting energy-efficient solar panels
In 2016, we decided to get ahead of the game and fit over 250 solar panels on our factory roofs here at Dearneside. An integral part of our operations, our factories use a lot of energy, so we were keen to investigate a way in which to reduce its energy intake.
A long-term sustainable strategy, fitting these solar panels has not only reduced our carbon footprint and energy usage, but has also enabled us to put energy back into the National Grid, where the power can instead be used to power people’s homes, schools and places of work.
Promoting sustainable travel
We believe that sustainability is not just about materials, but about mindset, too. In installing a large number of electric charging ports at our office car park, we aim to support and promote our workforce to purchase and use electric cars.
In addition, our entire fleet of our HGVs are Euro 6 – meaning that they comply with the new standards (including the London Clean Air initiative) and emissions are below 0.5g per km of carbon monoxide, below 0.17g per km of hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide combined and the particulate matter is below 0.005g per km. As a construction company working on sites across the UK, this initiative has been critical to reducing our business’ carbon footprint.
The future of sustainable construction
The future of construction is bright, and green – as claimed in the 2021 Forbes article, “The Construction Industry is Getting Greener: Why, How and What’s Changing?”. At Dearnside Fabrications, we look forward to adopting more sustainability measures within our business and operations in the coming years, and will be sure to keep our network updated.