Lionweld Kennedy were named the national winners of the MakeUK’s ‘Energy and Sustainability’ award last week in the prestigious St Paul’s Cathedral!
Our team got glammed up for an evening of toasting the best of manufacturing at the Make UK Manufacturing Awards, a celebration of innovative technologies, best projects, pioneering companies, and inspiring individuals.
We made it to finalist level for both the ‘Energy and Sustainability’ award, and the national ‘Manufacturer of the Year’ award at the prestigious MakeUK awards. In October last year, Lionweld Kennedy took both the ‘Energy and Sustainability’ and the ‘Manufacturer of the Region’ awards for the North East, Yorkshire and Humber which propelled us to the national level.
Positioned as finalists in the two competitive categories, we emerged victorious as we took home the national ‘Energy and Sustainability’ award for the efforts we have made in reducing our carbon emissions.
Lionweld Kennedy have been taking large strides in reducing the carbon emissions of our business, led by our Operations Director, Karl Wrightson. Through our Carbon Reduction Plan, we have been pushing business wide initiatives to reduce our carbon emissions, transforming Lionweld Kennedy and our processes. Just some of the initiatives we have implemented into the business include:
-Installation of solar panels across our site, designed to generate 300mWh annually with a 95% usage on site.
-Replacing our fleet of forklifts to fully electric with improved safety procedures.
-Switching to HVO (Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil) to heat our factories, resulting in a 90% reduction in emissions compared to the previous fuel source.
From 2021 to 2022, Lionweld Kennedy have seen their carbon emissions reduce significantly by 76%. By the end of 2023, Lionweld Kennedy had reduced their carbon emissions to just 59.5 tonnes of CO2e (Scope 1 & 2 emissions only), a staggering reduction of 92% compared to when the emissions were baselined in 2020.
We have also recently obtained the world’s first EPD for steel grating, transparently declaring what our Safegrid product is made of and how it impacts the environment across its entire life cycle.
As we continue to lead the change in the manufacturing industry, 2024 will see the value of our Knowledge Transfer Partnership, in partnership with Teesside University, as we launch an industry-first product that will support decarbonisation in the construction industry.
All these initiatives led to us winning this accolade and being recognised by MakeUK for improving the landscape of the manufacturing environment.
Our team are honoured to receive this award, marking a defining period as we achieved our long-term net zero target for 2040 at the end of 2023. Taking pride in this milestone, we will be sharing updates on our social media and on our latest news so watch this space as we continue to lead the change in sustainable manufacturing.