It’s World Environment Day! This year’s theme is ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’. More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year, half of which is designed to be used only once. Sadly, only 10% of the remaining plastic is recycled. Companies transitioning to a sustainable business can offset carbon emissions, reduce non-biodegradable sources and shift to cleaner energy, and more besides. 

Calvin, our Quality Manager, and Andy White, our Operations Manager, talk about our initiatives at NMB to reduce our impact on the environment. 

We carry out regular monitoring, audits and reviews to ensure our environmental performance complies with current best practices. Our objectives are publicly available and demonstrate our desire to reduce polluting emissions to both air and water, reduce waste disposal, and encourage reuse and recycling. Introducing new efficient boilers has supported the drive to our target of a 30% reduction in energy consumption.

We encourage recycling, from everyday items to metals. We recognise that the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) used to protect our staff in the manufacturing process can have a significant impact on the environment. Generally, PPE is neither recyclable nor biodegradable, and it breaks down into microplastics which will eventually contaminate the ocean. Long-lasting PPE helps to reduce this impact and we are driving forward to only use this type in all our company environments. 

We also ask our customers to return any cardboard packaging so that we can reuse it.  

We offer energy awareness training to all staff including incentives to employees to reduce energy usage. 

We currently have one plug-in hybrid car in our fleet and the future plan is to transition to EV (electrical vehicles) for all company cars and vans. We are planning for additional electric vehicle charging points to be installed. 

A review for the installation of solar panels on NMB buildings is currently taking place. We have plans in place to redirect hot air released by our compressors into the heating system to keep employees warm while reducing energy costs and environmental impact. 

Vegan options are available in our staff restaurant, which helps to reduce greenhouse gases and slows climate change. The restaurant minimises its surplus food by either freezing products or selling to employees at a reduced cost, so nothing goes to waste. 

At NMB Minebea we have a policy that will ensure the Environmental Management System is understood, implemented, and maintained by the team. This policy has been formulated to comply with the requirements of BS EN ISO 14001: 2015, and to the policy of our parent company. Read our environmental policy.  

Protecting our environment is important to us and therefore we are always thinking of ways to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly.