EMR is committed to becoming a cleaner, greener business – and to helping its customers do the same. Amongst the many obstacles to achieving this goal, is a whole dictionary of new terminology and jargon. Here we’re shedding some light on a few key words that should make the hard path to becoming sustainable a little easier.
To increase efficiency and reduce the number of journeys that EMR must make, it’s vital that material is as tightly condensed as possible, before it is packed on to a boat or truck to re-enter the circular economy.
Balers use hydraulic power to squeeze material into tight cubes, ready to be transported to foundries and mills around the world.
Another concept at the heart of EMR’s sustainability strategy is the circular economy – ensuring that material which would have once ended up in landfill is, instead, used to build the products, buildings, and technology of the future.
EMR is investing in new ‘circular supply chains’ for steel, plastic (with its plastic recycling division MBA Polymers UK), electric car batteries and a range of other key materials, enabling manufacturers in a range of industries to use more sustainable, recycled material in their new products.
While EMR has already begun the transition to renewable electricity for its shredders, shears and balers, there are other areas of the business that have traditionally been powered directly by fossil fuels – this is changing too.
In recent years, EMR has invested in its sites around the world to install state-of-the-art technology which relies on renewable electricity instead. This includes new electric cranes, a fleet of electric forklift trucks across UK sites and an innovative medium voltage/low voltage (LV/MV) inverter to increase the power efficiency of its electrified shredders.
Steelmaking contributes around seven-to-nine percent of global carbon emissions each year, according to the World Steel Association, and finding new ways to reduce this impact is essential.
‘Green steel’ utilises a range of innovative technologies, such as hydrogen power, advanced recycling processes and closed-loop supply chains, to deliver low carbon steel. Creating ‘green steel’ requires the highest quality recycled material possible, and EMR is committed to delivering the new grades of steel that meet these customers’ needs.
As well as focusing on reducing emissions and achieving net-zero, EMR believes it is also important to protect our natural world for future generations.
By reducing the use of virgin material from mines, metal recycling is an inherently nature-positive industry. Yet, EMR is going further – leading a rewilding initiative around its huge site in Oldbury, near Birmingham, creating new green community parks in New Orleans, USA, and even using end-of-life ships to build artificial reefs for the endangered red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico.
If we are to limit global warming to 1.5̊˚ C – as set out in the UN-led 2015 Paris Agreement – then economies need to reach net-zero, as soon as possible.
This means transitioning to technologies that create no or low emissions (such as electric vehicles, solar panels and offshore wind turbines) and finding ways to remove or capture any carbon that is emitted elsewhere. The UK and European Union have agreed to reach this goal by 2050. EMR is investing to achieve this target ten years early, in 2040.
Just because a building reaches the end of its intended life, doesn’t mean the high-quality components used to build it must be thrown away.
EMR has created an innovative new supply chain for reusable steel, carefully removing beams from old buildings due for demolition and preparing them for use in new ones. This offers the construction industry a 97.5% reduction in carbon emissions, compared to virgin construction steel. Every steel beam is carefully analysed by our team of experts to ensure its quality and, in 2022, EMR’s reusable steel became the world’s first to achieve an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD).
EMR is proud to be part of the Science-Based Target initiative, which brings together many of the world’s best climate scientists.
Being a part of this initiative will ensure the company’s path to net-zero is rigorous, third-party verified and within the accepted levels to meet the agreed global 1.5̊˚ C warming limit. Thousands of businesses around the world have also engaged with this important initiative, including Tesco, Unilever, Apple, and Google’s parent company Alphabet.
Communities around the world must make significant changes to the way they live, if we are to reduce the damage being done to the environment and pass on a healthier planet for the next generation. These changes – though vast – can all be categorised under the heading of sustainability.
Companies must also make considerable changes, making their manufacturing processes and operations ‘sustainable’, so that they are not only removing their negative impact on our world, but actively working to leave a positive one.
As one of the world’s most advanced recycling companies, EMR produces a range of high-quality, sustainable materials to enable manufacturers to use less nature-depleting virgin metals and plastics in their products. We also continue to invest in a range of innovative green technologies that will ensure we can also continue to do business sustainably for decades into the future.
What if we could find all the steel, copper, and rare-earth metals we need right here in the UK?
The ‘urban mine’ is a concept that sees everything – from end-of-life vehicles to waste electronics – as a source of untapped, valuable material, which can both cut our dependence on nature-depleting mining and boost our resource security. EMR is investing in a range of new processes and supply chains which will make the urban mine a reality in the UK and around the world.
To hit the ambitious target of net-zero by 2040, we launched our Sustainability Strategy in 2020. This roadmap will see the company do all it can to cut carbon in the first ten years, including switching to renewable electricity, electrifying key infrastructure and swapping company cars for electric vehicles. Other areas will take longer and will require EMR to collaborate with customers, suppliers, and policymakers in new and creative ways.
EMR’s longstanding approach of investing back into its business has ensured it’s already leading the way on a range of innovative technologies that will make this net-zero target a reality. To find out more about our sustainability goal so far, visit our website: Sustainability strategy | EMR Metal Recycling Reimagined (emrgroup.com)
