Sustainability

Glendinning is wholly committed to managing and developing its operations in a sustainable manner for the benefit of its customers and communities across the Westcountry and beyond. Our goals for sustainability cross all areas of our business as follows:

Our Products

Glendinning strive to manufacture in an environmentally responsible manner and we source products and services locally wherever possible.

Our commitment to sourcing locally is also reflected in our support for the principle of reducing the distance that minerals travel across the UK by encouraging companies and individuals to buy locally, thus reducing carbon consumption.

The UK Government has set a target to decarbonise the UK economy by 80% by 2050. The minerals industry certainly has its own part to play with the transportation of minerals accounting for just over 32% of the industry's CO₂ output.

The UK Mineral's Forum 'Shaping UK Minerals Policy' report, September 2009, outlines two potential approaches to trying to reduce the distance minerals travel, as follows:

• Tougher planning policies to reinforce the proximity principle by giving preference or greater weight to using local sources, notably for aggregates, which are widely available; and
• Intervention to give preference or added weight to local sources for minerals.

Therefore, an effective method of reducing your carbon footprint is to buy locally - source your building products from a local manufacturer.

We are actively involved in the reprocessing of site arisings and road planings, and can offer recycled products as viable alternatives to those made with quarried stone, thus reducing the demand for new primary raw materials. In addition to this, we have also developed a cold-lay asphalt material which utilises recycled products. To find out more about Enviromat™, click here.

Our Environment

Glendinning is committed to being a responsible operator and a good neighbour in the locality. However, with ever-increasing environmental legislation, customer enquiries and public interest, having a good track record is no longer enough to publicly demonstrate our environmental performance. So, we have decided to implement a formal environmental management system and are part-way to achieving BS 8555.

The granting of this standard will recognise existing sustainable practices benchmarked in 2008 with the help of the Carbon Trust. Some examples of our practice can be found on the right.

Our People

Without the commitment and skill of our employees, Glendinning would not be able to deliver its products and services to you. Our high level of investment in training ensures quality and service excellence as well as helping to keep our workplaces safe.

Demonstrating the competence of our employees is a key objective and we use qualified internal trainers - such as our SAFED driver trainers or NVQ assessors at our approved NVQ centre at Linhay Hill - or external sources, to give our staff the knowledge to produce a first-class product.

The future development of young people will help sustain our industry and we operate a highly successful apprentice scheme, most notably within our Contracting Division and Engineering, Transport and Plant facilities. Glendinning was recognised in June 2007 for our apprenticeship programme.

We also believe strongly that employees should have the opportunity to be involved in the future development of their company. Regular meetings of our Employee Consultation Committees ensure that those who are interested can have an active part to play.

Working alongside our Health and Safety committees, our Employee Health and Safety representatives inspect our working environment and help shape our safety culture through our goal of zero accidents.

Our Community

The Glendinning business is rooted in the Westcountry and the family has always been committed to 'giving back' to the community in which we live and work, particularly in the field of education and youth development.

Over the years we have maintained a very strong involvement with South Dartmoor Community College, we have sponsored a Youth Development project at Newton Abbot Rugby Club and we regularly entertain visitors to the quarry - from the youngest pupils at our nearest school, Ashburton Primary School, to undergraduate engineers and geologists who come to study the Devonian limestone formation of Linhay Hill quarry.

Download our Sustainability Report. [PDF 1.37mb]