Throughout the year, our sustainability initiatives have continued to evolve. We have made substantial strides in addressing key environmental and social challenges, while fostering sustainable growth in line with our stakeholders' expectations.
Our Planet
We contribute to the transition to a low-carbon economy through our products that help others reduce their emissions, and through our operations by committing to become a net zero emissions business.
In November 2022, we announced our commitment to achieve net-zero emissions and set science-based targets for the near and long term. In May 2025 we successfully received validation from the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) for our targets. The Group commits to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) across the value chain by 2040. We commit to reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions by 90% by 2040 from a 2023 base year. We report progress on our reduction targets against the base years restated to exclude divestments and to include acquisitions, in accordance with the GHG Protocol.
We continue to make good progress in reducing our Scope 1 & 2 emissions across the Group, as outlined above. Key elements in achieving reductions to date include investing in solar panels at our Noratel manufacturing plant in Sri Lanka, in our Flux site in Thailand, at our MTC site in Germany and CPI in the US, and at our Noratel site in China. We are considering future investments in solar panels at other sites, where economically appropriate. Where available, we have also switched our sites' electricity supplies to renewable energy sources. CY2024 emissions were 59% lower than CY2021.
In CY2024 our like-for-like natural gas emissions were 15% lower than CY2021. This represents an increase on CY2022 and CY2023, as we balance increased activity with the identification of viable and cost-effective technologies to replace gas at our remaining sites. In addition, the prevalence of natural gas as a fuel for heating in industrial applications means we often acquire new natural gas emissions with new businesses. 28% of our emissions from natural gas in CY2024 were generated by companies acquired since 2021.
Progress highlights in CY2024:
- We reduced Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 59% compared with the CY2021 baseline
- 83% of the Group's electricity is now sourced from renewable or clean sources
- 50% of the vehicles in our car fleet are now electric or hybrid
- In CY2024, natural gas emissions were 15% lower than the CY2021 baseline
- In CY2024, energy intensity was 20% lower than in CY2021
- 74% of revenue is generated by operations with ISO 14001 certification
Our People
We aim to provide a clean, healthy and safe working environment to our employees. In CY2024, we conducted over 20,000 hours of health & safety training across the Group, equivalent to more than four hours per employee. In FY2025 we revised our definition of a 'lost time incident' ("LTI") to be more stringent. Our definition of an LTI is now any incident or accident which results in an employee being unable to return to work the following day (previously after five days or more). This brings our definition in line with industry best practice.
On the revised basis, the lost time incident frequency rate in FY2025 was 0.25 (FY2024: 0.20).
The percentage of employees that work in operations with ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems accreditation increased to 73% from 60% in FY2024.
We’ve also made some progress on gender diversity. As at 31 March 2025, the proportion of female representatives in the Group’s operational management improved to 38% (FY2024: 34%). As a proportion of Group-wide senior management it was 23% (FY2024: 28%), and as a proportion of the Board it reduced to 33% (FY2024: 43%).
Our Products
The sustainability of our products is a priority. We ensure raw materials used are from responsible sources, which are procured in accordance with the principles in our Supplier Code of Conduct, Modern Slavery Statement and Conflict Minerals Policy. During the year, we repeated our Group-wide supplier audit programme. This process ensures that over 50% of our Group-wide spend is audited on a three-year cycle.
in FY2025, 79% of Group revenue was derived from UN SDG aligned activities, up from 75% in FY2024.
The quality of our products is monitored and ensured through the widespread adoption of ISO 9001. As at 31 December 2024, 94% of the Group’s products, measured by revenue, were manufactured under the ISO 9001 accredited system (31 December 2023: 98%).