Net Zero by 2040: Our journey to a sustainable future

The climate crisis poses a real threat to the future of us and the planet. As a business, we know we have an important role to play in fighting this threat; we are taking significant and quantifiable steps to reduce our environmental impact and using all tools at our disposal to make a positive change. We believe we need to be on this journey together to succeed, so we are calling on government and industry to come together and act urgently to maintain a liveable future for all.

Through our sustainability pathway, we have already achieved so much. In September 2024, we achieved B Corp certification, having been certified by B Lab UK, the not-for-profit behind the B Corp movement, as having met rigorous social and environmental standards. Read more about this achievement here and why Axter decided to go on this journey.

This milestone joins many of our other achievements, including becoming a Silver Carbon Literate Organisation and completing a Carbon Assessment verified by Natural Carbon Solutions; plus, our ongoing work to support our six climate and community partner charities.

While we are proud of everything we have achieved so far, we know this is just the beginning of our journey. We are committed to accelerating the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals – 17 global objectives designed to achieve a sustainable and equitable future for all citizens – and have mapped out our sustainability pathway with four impact areas to this effect. These are: transforming our climate impact; building a team for the future; creating resilient rooftops; and enriching our communities.

1) Transforming our climate impact

Businesses and government must come together to collectively limit the rise in global temperatures to ensure we maintain a liveable future for all.

The next goals on our journey to becoming a Net Zero organisation by 2040 include:

• Reducing our baseline 2022 emissions by 73% by 2030 in our own operations (Scope 1 & 2) emissions

• Publishing a carbon compensation plan by 2025

• Reducing our indirect emissions (Scope 3) by 50% by 2030

• Becoming ISO 14001 certified by 2026

Plus, transitioning 100% of our vehicle fleet to electric models by 2027.

Axter’s in-house sustainability working group meets regularly to discuss the progress of each of these goals, with each goal assigned an ‘owner’: a team member who is responsible for pushing forward the ambition and reporting on progress at each meeting.

To make lasting changes that are significant and measurable, we believe in being highly critical of ourselves, our partners, and our wider supply chain, so we can all move forward in a truly meaningful way.

With our desire to adopt a rigorous approach – and knowing we need expert support along the way – we partnered with Cyd Connects in 2022, a women-led sustainability consultancy. The team helped us to measure, assess and create our first sustainability pathway and were instrumental in guiding us through the complexities of the B Corp assessment.

We also partnered with specialist carbon assessment consultancy Eight Versa,  who assisted us in measuring our carbon footprint, including product lifecycle assessments. This measurement enables us to develop effective plans for reducing our carbon impact.

2) Building a team for the future

We understand that building a team of talented and passionate individuals is crucial to achieve our collective aim – to transform the world above our heads, and maximise all opportunities to make a tangible difference to our communities and to the planet.

Within our team, we emphasise the importance of curiosity, and encourage our team members to seek out new and more sustainable approaches in all aspects of our organisation.

We champion a diverse workforce and are committed to giving everyone the opportunity to succeed. We will continue to improve our wellbeing programs and flexible working practices; this includes our plan to develop a robust mental health support strategy and commit to an annual employment engagement survey. Plus, we plan to develop an enhanced learning and development programme, directly upskilling teams in line with clearly defined progression requirements.

We are already fostering a culture of education and support among all our employees to empower them on their individual sustainability journeys. We partnered with Hattrick, a training provider, to provide Carbon Literacy training to all our staff members. You can read more about this training here, including examples of pledges made by our team to reduce their carbon footprints.

3) Creating resilient rooftops

By providing durable and high-performing roofing systems – including our living, green roofs that help to promote biodiversity and our solar PV roofs that provide a source of renewable energy – our products can help support climate change mitigation and adaption, contributing to the UK’s rewilding goals, water conservation, and national renewable energy efforts.

As such, we have set targets to increase square metres sold of blue roofs, living roofs and solar roofs. We also have plans to increase the amount of recycled and recyclable components in our products, and to reduce the amount of energy consumption required during roofing applications. Plus, we have plans to develop product-specific Environmental Product Declarations for all core Axter roofing systems.

4) Enriching our communities

Businesses have a responsibility to support the community around them, and we believe that includes everyone we work with, including suppliers, contractors, merchants, and installers, as well as the environment and the populations that surround us.

We are passionate about sharing our knowledge and resources. Our strategy for the next six years includes an aim to inspire and enhance our supplier community through measures such as influencing them to reduce packaging and plastic usage. Plus, we will be taking steps to improve accredited contractor standards and enhance our community and civic engagement, with the latter including a pledge to donate 1% of our revenue per year to charitable causes.

We are continuing to provide ongoing support to our partner charities: Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), Rewilding Britain, Suffolk Mind, Emmaus Suffolk and Suffolk Community Foundation. Read more about our projects with these charities here, including our work with Suffolk Mind to train our staff to spot and help colleagues cope with mental health challenges, and the support we provide to the charity’s EARLY Minds programme, which enabled it to take the service into local schools.

The journey ahead

We are so proud of all the progress we have made, and our work is far from over. We will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible, leveraging innovation and collaboration to drive meaningful change. Together, we can build a future where sustainability is not just a goal but a reality for all. Join us as we lead the charge towards a brighter, more sustainable tomorrow for the UK’s roofing industry.

For more information on our sustainability pathway, and for the latest updates on our progress, visit our webpage here: axter.co.uk/sustainability