SuperFOIL has recently made significant strides in reducing our carbon emissions, as part of a combined effort with our parent company Boulder Developments. We are proud to share some insights into our sustainability; in particular a window of time between June 2022 and May 2023.

Despite having started as a family business, dedicated to providing premium multifoil insulation products, we’ve grown into a significant player in the insulation manufacturing industry and established our position as a leading supplier of reflective insulation. However, even as we developed from our humble beginning – going from a home office to 65+ members, outgrowing multiple offices, and producing over a million square metres of premium insulation products annually, sustainability remained at the core of everything we do at SuperFOIL, and we strive to be mindful of our impact on the environment.

In particular, we’re proud to report that we’ve remained in line with our company objective to achieve Net Zero as a business; working with ‘Inspired PLC’ to implement their Net Zero tool kit in order to diligently track, monitor and measure exactly how much carbon we emit during our daily operations within the business spectrum.

Scope 1, 2 and 3 Emissions

Over the last 12 months, we have identified material emission sources across our value chain*; significantly reduced emissions from raw material sourcing; and set clear targets to meet scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions for the future. To give you context into what the scopes mentioned are, Scope 1, 2 and 3 is a way of categorising the different kinds of carbon emissions a company creates in its own operations, and in its wider value chain.

• Scope 1: Covers the fuels we purchase (Gas, Electric, Petrol, etc.) and use.
  
• Scope 2: Covers the emissions we directly contribute to through our own actions.
  
• Scope 3: Covers carbon emission that our business indirectly causes and/or supports: such as customer emissions
  
  (when purchasing and using our products), supplier emissions, and emissions from other companies transporting
  
  our goods.

Carbon Emission – Key Findings (2022 – 2023)

Based on Inspired PLC’s emission inventory, Boulder Developments (parent company) have managed to record all three scopes across the three businesses to gain a full understanding of our overall impact and our progress on the Net Zero journey.

• Our business’s total greenhouse carbon emission for scope 1, 2 and 3 equate to 2587 tonnes of CO2 (tCO2e) per
  
  year.
  
• Only 1.6% of our overall emissions come from scope 1 & 2; meaning less than 2% of our emissions are caused by
  
  SuperFOIL  directly (86 tCO2e).
  
• The remaining 98.4% of our total emissions represent indirect emissions from our business, but up and down the
  
  value chain.
  
• Our top five emission categories come from scope 3, these top categories were recorded as: the purchase of goods
  
  and service (1,770 tCO2e), use of sold products (443 tCO2e), upstream transport & distribution (222 tCO2e),
  
  employee commuting (38 tC02e) and capital goods (30 tC02e).
  

The sustainability report prepared by Inspired PLC for Boulder Developments runs up to May 2023. However, we’ve already invested in significant policy and process improvements across our business since that end date, allowing us to further minimise our impact on the environment while also maximising our resource efficiency.

Sustainable Initiatives to Bring Down Carbon Emission

As part of Boulder Development’s commitment to becoming a Net Zero business, all subsidiary companies, including SuperFOIL, Ventilation Megastore and TreeFloor, have implemented key initiatives to meet individual emission reduction targets. 

SuperFOIL Insulation, operating as a carbon-neutral business on its journey to Net Zero, has prioritised strategies to minimise our environmental impact. We have increasingly focused on energy conservation, decarbonization, waste reduction, and fostering a sustainable value chain. Below are some of SuperFOIL’s top initiatives implemented since 2023:

In-house Production: While we are currently at one of the most significant periods of expansion in the company’s history, allowing us to bring more of our production activities from external and overseas suppliers in-house into our Lincoln Headquarters – a great achievement for our sustainability. To facilitate this, we have invested over £500,000 in our latest custom-designed and engineered multifoil production machine. Additionally, our previous investments in two bubble foil machines along with the new multifoil machine have allowed us to produce our signature lines of multifoil, breathable and bubble foil products in house, securing our position as a UK based manufacturer. 

Solar Energy Generation: As we increased our in-house operations, it was important that we also minimise our fuel emission rates, which led to another significant addition to our net-zero efforts: a 50+ kW Solar PV (solar photovoltaic) system installed above our production facility. This solar system is estimated to generate consistent, flexible and clean energy – year round – with our annual yield forecast providing 55.4 kWp and an estimated C02 reduction of 11,401 kg/year.

Local Partners: Local partners have been crucial in our efforts to facilitate the growing demands for our products with a sustainable value chain.  In response to the growing demand for our products – with the aim of integrating a sustainable value chain – we have been focusing more on onshoring our activities and building connections with local businesses. By collaborating with more local suppliers, services, and delivery partners, we aim to reduce our carbon footprint associated with transportation emissions while also fostering a healthy local  economy. We want our local communities to grow as we grow!

Electric Fleet: We have introduced an electric fleet consisting of twelve vehicles, including ‘electric forklifts,’ ‘pallet stackers,’ ‘powered pump trucks,’ and electric cars. This was a big leap forward in minimising our dependence on combustion engines and integrating cleaner energy solutions in our daily operations.

Trees Planted: In partnership with Ecologi, we have planted 9,064 trees so far and avoided 767.01 tonnes of carbon emission in the process.

Conclusion

Within the manufacturing sector, looking at similar sized businesses (SME) the average measure of carbon emitted is 4,110 tonnes, which is 60% more carbon emission than our business!!

SuperFOIL Insulation was recently awarded as a Business Champion for Sustainability by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) for our efforts in incorporating Net Zero initiatives and setting standards within the industry. As a sustainable manufacturer, we believe that our purpose is to help people create happier, healthier, and more sustainable homes. While our products are certainly making homes more sustainable and energy-efficient, much of our success also serves to demonstrate that economic success and environmental responsibility go hand in hand. If you’d like to learn more, you can see a complete list of our sustainable initiatives here.

As we continue on our sustainability journey, we’re determined to continue monitoring and minimising our business’s scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions – and we hope that our initiatives will inspire others within our industry to adopt similar practices. After all, a greener future is nothing but a benefit for us all and our future generations!

Glossary

*Value Chain: “A value chain refers to the full lifecycle of a product or process, including material sourcing, production, consumption and disposal/recycling processes.”