ESG Update: Circular Design, Greener Packaging & Carbon Offsetting

We are now in the third year of our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) journey! How are we getting on? A quote from our ESG guide comes to mind: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” This ancient Chinese proverb, written 2,600 years ago, is as relevant today as ever. For us, it represents the long-term commitment required to achieve our sustainability objectives while also extending an arm out to our China office and the carbon offsetting projects we support in Hebei Province.

Sustainable Growth and Transparency with FuseBox

In March 2023, we acquired FuseBox, the leading brand for circuit protection in the UK. This alliance has been fantastic, with our combined ambition and dedication to quality creating a powerful bond in this highly competitive industry. The partnership will bring many positive outcomes, including economic growth, job creation, skill development, and innovation. FuseBox have been carbon neutral since 2023 and have an Ecovadis Silver Award. However, our ESG team found that our carbon footprint increased by 4.37% in the acquisition.

Ultimately, this acquisition will have a positive long-term environmental impact, as we are committed to championing sustainability across all areas of our business, both new and established. Our overall goal is to reduce carbon emissions as much as possible, resorting to offsets only as a last resort. To address the immediate increase in our carbon footprint, we offset our total emissions through the UN Carbon Offset Platform Project Number 3797, a Biomass Cogeneration Project in ChengAn County, Hebei Province, China.

This innovative project converts local cotton straw into electricity, providing a green alternative to coal-fired power plants. It reduces harmful emissions and supplies clean energy to homes and businesses in the region. The project benefits the local community by creating jobs and driving investment. Additionally, it has received approval from both the UN and UK environmental bodies, highlighting its global significance.

Circular Design Verification and Repak Membership

Last year, we made significant strides in key areas identified through our ESG project. We increased the number of hybrid cars in our sales fleet, reduced energy consumption at our HQ in Dublin by 21% by installing a full solar panel solution on the premises, relocated our China office to newer, larger premises, allowing easier access for our staff to public transport, and launched a new page, “Our Worldwide Commitment to Sustainable Lighting” to share the details of our ESG journey with our customers.

That’s not all— for the first time, we applied for and were awarded TM66 Assured Certification for our GOLF and SELEST luminaires! If you’re unfamiliar with TM66, read our blog on the circular economy, which explains how TM66 is the standard for circular design and why verification in this area is so important. We also became Repak members, allowing us to focus on reducing our packaging and making it more sustainable.

What’s Next for Environmental, Social, and Governance in 2024?

Now that we have successfully been awarded TM66 Assured Certification for GOLF and SELEST, we will apply these circular design learnings across all our main lighting ranges. This initiative is part of a broader Circular Economy Project, which includes calculating the product carbon footprint of our top 20 product ranges, adding ESG-related data to our digital product information database, and exploring reusable options for non-faulty product returns.

We also have a plan to further improve sustainability in our packaging. We will continue to remove plastic and non-recyclable materials from our internal packaging, launch eco-friendly outer packaging, and reduce associated transport emissions. Throughout all these efforts, we will maintain clear and transparent communication about our sustainability journey. We will provide access to Carbon Neutral Commitment Declarations and ESG status reports on our website and publish regular updates via our blog and social media accounts.

Have a question? Reach out to our Technical Team at technical@robus.com about anything regarding our sustainability journey and our ESG project. You can find a copy of our PAS 2060 Qualifying Explanatory Statement (QES) in the Sustainability section of our website.