For EMR to be a modern and successful metal recycling business, we must also work tirelessly to be a responsible recycler.
In my role as EMR’s UK Environmental and Regulatory Manager, I work with the SHE team to bring together the two elements of what it means to be ‘responsible’: health and safety and environmental protection.
In terms of health and safety, EMR has worked hard to create a culture of trust and honesty. Any member of staff who feels that there might be a potential risk are empowered to stop operations. This is called a ‘Stop-Work Authority’, and it highlights an important fact – being a responsible recycler means every member of staff must play their part.
My role is to ensure that we protect the environment, which plays a critical role in EMR’s overall operations. Ensuring we lead the industry in maintaining high standards to protect the environment helps us to become a better neighbour, gain the reputation needed to attract new customers and even plays an important role in our recruitment. In 2021, young people want to know that any prospective new employer cares about its environmental impact. It’s one of the many reasons why, last year, EMR launched its ambitious sustainability strategy, ‘Our Decade of Action’, which details the measures that the company will take over the next ten years on its journey to become a fully net-zero business by 2040.
To bring together both health and safety and environmental protection, EMR records every ‘SHE Perfect Day’ – a day free of injury, major vehicle accidents and environmental harm. We regularly share this good news with our team members to ensure they know the importance of their individual efforts in helping us be a more responsible recycler.
One of the big strengths of EMR’s family-led business model, is that we’re able to plan ahead, where others may choose to chase short-term goals. As we seek to make our business more sustainable and play our role in creating a more circular economy, this longer-term model has allowed us to make major investments in our sites in the UK.
Already this year, we have introduced our first electrically-enabled material handler in the UK, at our Liverpool Alexandra Docks site. We have also upgraded the electric power supply to one of our biggest shedders at our Willesden metal recycling facility in north London to make it more efficient. Whilst over in the US, we have invested $2.5m in a rail line to our shredder site in Becker, Minnesota, enabling us to transport materials across the country by wagon, reducing the carbon associated with moving these materials by truck. We have similar projects under way in our US and European operations.
In addition, we have partnered with others in our sector and some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers including BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Bentley to establish a circular supply chain for end-of-life electric vehicle batteries in the UK.
This project is supported by funding from the UK Government’s Advanced Propulsion Centre.
These investments are only possible because of the way we do business. A sign of the holistic approach we take to being a responsible recycler is that EMR’s SHE team is further strengthening its health and safety standards. At EMR, being ‘responsible’ means caring about our people just as much as we care about the environment.
Of course, while EMR is committed to the highest health and safety and environmental standards, we also know that we cannot ‘mark our own homework’ when it comes to important issues such as this.
We’re particularly proud of the certification we have received from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for the safety, quality and environmental management systems at many of our UK sites. This certification allows us to demonstrate to our staff, our customers and regulators that we have industry-leading systems in place in areas such as occupational health and safety.
This transparent approach has also influenced the direction of ‘Our Decade of Action’ strategy. Our goal is to become a net-zero business by 2040 and we’re backing this up by joining the Race to Zero, ensuring our efforts are aligned with some of the world’s leading climate scientists.
And it is thanks to all this work – and the improvements which we continue to make – that at EMR, we can say with confidence ours is both a sustainable and responsible recycling business.
