In the past couple of years, we continue to make good progress towards meeting our sustainability goals despite the pandemic.
Our Planet
We are committed to playing our part in directly reducing our carbon emissions. In the calendar year 2022, the Group's carbon emissions (Scope 1 & 2) were 52% lower and, on a like-for-like basis, 55% lower compared with the base year of 2019. Carbon intensity on a like-for-like basis was 66% lower, achieving our initial target of 50% reduction by 2025 two years ahead of schedule. The Group's overall CY2022 Scope 1 & 2 emissions on a continuing operations basis, i.e. excluding emissions from the disposed Vertec SA and Acal BFi, were reduced by 35% year-on-year, a significant progress on our short and medium term net zero goals.
Total energy consumption during 2022 was 4% lower year-on-year despite acquisitions and strong manufacturing output. As a result, energy intensity fell by 18% year-on-year, well ahead of our 10% reduction target by 2030.
During the calendar year of 2022, we also made following progress:
- Increased the percentage of electricity from renewable or clean sources to 58% from 29% in CY2021;
- 63% of our sites completed an energy audit, increasing from 53% in CY2021;
- Increased hybrid and fully electric vehicles in our car fleet to 33% from 26% in CY2021;
- Two more sites completed ISO 14001 certification, however the percentage of revenue covered by ISO 14001 fell slightly due to the mix of revenue.
Our People
We aim to provide a clean, healthy and safe working environment to our employees. In the calendar year 2022, we conducted over 16,000 hours of health & safety training across the Group and increased the health & safety representatives from 128 to 229, giving it a representative to employee ratio of 1:21 (CY2021: 1:38).
The number of lost time incidents remain low at 19 in the financial year 2023 (FY2022: 19). The lost time incident frequency rate reduced to 0.21 (FY2022: 0.23).
We’ve also made good progress on gender diversity. As at 31 March 2022, the proportion of female representatives in the Group’s senior management increased to 28% (FY2022: 20%) and as a proportion of Group-wide operational senior management reduced slightly to 30% (FY2022: 36%).
The percentage of employees that work in operations with ISO 45001 accreditation increased substantially from 5% in CY2021 to 48% as a result of that six sites, including two of the Group's largest ones by headcount, had achieved ISO 45001 certification in the year.
Our Products
During the financial year 2022, we conducted a Group-wide supplier audit which covered the key suppliers of each operating business, equivalent to 62% of the Group’s materials spend in the year. In FY2023, we continued the practice and completed the second phase of the audit programme, focusing on the Group's second tier of largest suppliers in the year. The areas surveyed included environment, people and labour, health & safety, and quality and governance. A majority of the surveyed suppliers were compliant with the Group’s Supplier Code of Conduct. A small number of non-compliant suppliers were also identified and required actions to achieve compliance were communicated.
The quality of our products is monitored and ensured through the widespread adoption of ISO 9001. As at 31 December 2022, 92% of the Group’s products, measured by revenue, were manufactured under the ISO 9001 accredited system (31 December 2021: 87%).