David Osborne, CEO of Roman Limited, outlines the company’s approach to improving its environmental credentials, resulting in a recent special commendation at the BMA Sustainability Awards
We were delighted to receive a special commendation certificate for our comprehensive contribution to sustainability at the BMA’s Sustainability Awards 2022.
One of the award judges mentioned our commitment and contribution to sustainability throughout our business, saying, “This is excellent stuff; they are setting a great path.”
This recognition is welcome and spurs us to more outstanding achievements and results.
At Roman, we have been working on our environmental credentials for over ten years, seeing it as increasingly important commercially and as our social duty and responsibility. We have long embraced the Circular Economy principles, which are based on the circularity of materials before and after manufacture.
Roman is the only volume manufacturer of showering solutions in Britain, and our future is Made in Britain – not sourcing finished goods from China. It is a significant differential that competitors cannot follow. Customers recognise this, especially major hotel groups who already crave such environmentally positive data on materials, and it is becoming almost a prerequisite to be able to work closely with them from the design stage.
Our environmental and sustainability credentials
Environmental credentials are already of substantial commercial importance in the international hotel sphere – and are certainly of increasing relevance to housebuilders; and will inevitably become more important in the retail sector.
Insofar as our materials, we have made significant strides. For instance, our aluminium and brass is 100% recycled before we use it and at the end of its life. Our glass is currently operating at a level close to 100% of recycled material before its used. Our solid surface moulding and fabrication plants use material which is predominantly natural stone. When such products are at their end of life, they can be re-ground and used back in the original mix at the original value.
In addition, all our packaging is manufactured from corrugated cardboard, which is already recycled before we use it and extremely easy to recycle after use. In 2021, Roman’s installation division returned and reused 600,000 sq. m. of packaging from UK building sites.
Our 400,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facilities, including our three factories, showroom and testing facilities, have now installed LED lighting, and the energy for all factories is run off an energy-efficient on-demand variable speed compressor.
The companywide emphasis on recycling means there are numerous recycling points around the business. It has led to many initiatives within our company to eliminate single-use plastics within day-to-day operations. Due to our proactive approach over the years, 93% of all waste is recycled, and landfill has been reduced to 7% of total waste generated.
Finally, all our new company cars since 2020 are electric or electric hybrid, and they all have electric charging points installed at our headquarters.
The future goals and our contribution to sustainability
The next step in our journey is to become net zero – a natural extension to Carbon Neutral – but a very different challenge. The ultimate goal is to reach a state where no carbon is emitted to eliminate the need for carbon capture or offset. This is a significant challenge for a manufacturing business like Roman – but we are focused on this as our next long-term goal.
In business and social terms, none of us can continue to ignore climate change. We are incredibly proud to have achieved Carbon Neutral status. Achieving this accolade has been our key objective over recent years, as it highlights our enormous and ongoing commitment to the environment.
As a leading British manufacturer, we significantly focus on sustainability, and further breakthroughs will come over the next few years.