Make UK’s report Manufacturing: Stepping Up To The Sustainability Challenge shows that despite the challenge of Brexit, 50% manufacturers are making headway with their sustainability programmes, with 70% of those reporting that they have benefited from a reduction in costs.
The businesses which were most successful in driving sustainability and environmental improvements and cost-savings adopted a boardroom to shop-floor approach to promoting change, ensuring they took the whole of the workforce with them on the sustainability journey.
The UK’s decision to leave the EU has significant ramifications for environmental policy, which has largely been driven and overseen by the EU. A new framework is now being developed to manage England’s environment over the long term. Scotland and Wales have their own plans. For manufacturers, the future governance process can seem abstract, but it will set the boundaries within which they will be expected to operate long into the future.
Our survey results demonstrate that despite the level of Brexit uncertainty, our members are moving along the path towards sustainability. Whilst they are rightly conscious of the cost of implementing environmental and energy improvements, some are going much further and already thinking about the risk of climate change could pose to their businesses.
“We commend the Government for taking action on the big environmental issues of today such as plastic waste, air quality and climate change: however, business needs a solid policy landscape that can only come from proper consultation with those affected. We would therefore urge the Government to continue its engagement with manufacturers and ensure business can take the next steps along the path to sustainability.
