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Save the Planet – Buy British

13 Jul 2018
News

We’re being encouraged to protect the environment by cutting down our CO2 emissions through use of plastic and using public transport more often, but have you given much thought to where the materials you specify come from?

After checking your chosen materials are fully compliant with Building Regulations and are suitable for your specific project, it is a good idea to think about your carbon footprint. Take the time to find out where your materials are manufactured – not only could this affect how long you will be waiting for the materials to arrive but could also impact on your environmental credentials.

From Russia with Love
We enlisted the help of some technical boffins to crunch the numbers. Transporting 1000m2 of three-layer roofing felt from Russia to the Liver Building in Liverpool would create nearly 1,600kg of CO2 emissions as the felt travels a whopping 2,748km. Transporting the same felt from our factory in Appley Bridge, Wigan would create just over 12kg of CO2 emissions with the short 22km hop via the M58 which would take you just 46 minutes. That’s an incredible 99% saving on CO2 emissions!

The Italian Job
What about a bit further afield, like Edinburgh Castle? Transporting the same 1000m2 three-layer of roofing felt from Italy would create 1,234kg of CO2 emissions over a total distance of 2,146km. From Appley Bridge, you’d create 115kg of CO2 emissions during the 200km journey to Edinburgh. Whilst it would take a little longer to get to Scotland at 3 hours 40 minutes, it would still easily beat the drive from Italy, the ferry from Calais and then the very long drive from Dover to Edinburgh.

Here at IKO, we have been manufacturing British made products for over 100 years. Today, the majority of our products come from our factory in Appley Bridge, Wigan. We have three other plants at Clay Cross and Grangemill (both in Derbyshire) and Alconbury in Cambridgeshire which we opened in March this year. This means that you can be assured that when you specify IKO, you’re getting quality products which are made locally.

So make the smart choice – reduce both your carbon footprint and the transport time for your materials by choosing to specify British-made IKO materials. To view all our British Made for British Trade products, use our IKO Product Selector Tool.

For more information, download our CSR brochure here.

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