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Bedrock’s reasons to go green

Bedrock Tiles’ Pete Brown discusses the reasons to align businesses to net-zero targets in the Queen’s English.

Bedrock Tiles is proud to announce some seriously climate-positive news: we have achieved a status of becoming the first company in the UK tiling industry to be certified to a corporate level as Carbon Neutral Business!

Everyone is hearing about net-zero this and net-zero that, but often, we turn off the news and go about our daily business of generating company profits to stay in business, support our staffs’ wages every month and grow as organisations, right? I’ve sat in venues before and overheard people discussing the constant “ramming it down our throats” complaint, but look back only a couple of weeks ago to mid-July and you’ll remember temperatures topping 40 degrees. It’s not a coincidence – if you don’t believe this, when was the last time it snowed on Christmas day? The world is changing and it’s well on its way to us, the dreaded words: climate change.


Along with certifying our business as carbon neutral, I’m also a member of the Sustainability Working Group for the TTA, which means change is on its way for every part of the tiling industry, be it, tilers, retail showrooms, distributors, wholesalers or even manufacturers.


So you might be thinking, what does this mean for me?


Guidance on change will start to show itself as early as next year within the TTA. The UK’s Green Building Council (UKGBC) which is made up of a wide-ranging group of specialists from government, councils, construction firms, architects (RIBA), chartered surveyors (RICS), developers and more, has organised to help shape the future of the built environment.


The most recent publication, issued November 2021, outlines guidance to get us as an industry to the net-zero target in 2050.


Don’t be scared of the term net-zero – it simply means omitting less harmful levels of CO2te into the world than we did in 1990, which you must agree was cataclysmic coming off the back of the capitalist 1980s where production was at a record high!


The UKGBC states many things, in particular that material suppliers and manufacturers must supply an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certificate with at least 40% of its offerings by 2025 – just over 2 years from now. It also recommends portfolios should be at 100% EPD-certified by 2030. Have you looked into this? Reach out to us at Bedrock if you need guidance in more detail.
Along with the EPD requirements, there is a request that main contractors are to adopt sustainable frameworks and supply chains. This method is harder to achieve as it’s out of our control but we – that’s a collective we – can apply pressure on them to do this. The pressure (or ‘lure’ as I like to call it) is achieved by becoming more sustainably focused than they are.


If you take a look at larger scale developments, when applying for planning permissions, clients are now obligated to make carbon offsetting payments to reduce the detriment caused through the project build. If you are carbon-neutral certified, the client no longer has to pay money for the tile part of the off-setting payments, which means they can save money by using carbon neutral certified companies. In theory, it saves a client money on their project to opt for greener thinking businesses, like yours can become!


This is one of many recommendations laid out in the Pathway to Net-Zero document from the UKGBC. A small step from you can make a big difference in your bottom line moving forwards. To rephrase a famous saying: “If you ain’t green, you can’t get on the scene!” This is coming at us like a steam train, so start investigating and we’re here to support you when you need it. g
www.bedrock-tiles.com

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