In 2020 our ‘local’ international business, Lucy Electric, supported a new 21st Century Thame initiative called #ThameTrees with a £2,500 sponsorship to plant trees. Lucy Electric is seen supporting so many projects in and around Thame and this is just the tip of the iceberg of their commitment to community and sustainability.
The goal of #ThameTrees at that time was to plant 500 trees in 2020. With the amazing support of Cristiana from Lucy Electric we managed to find locations and volunteers to plant more than 2,000 trees.
Since then we have put more than 7,000 trees in the ground in and around Thame, with the help of councils, tree giveaway charities like I Dig Trees and Woodland Trust for Communities and other companies around Thame (look out for their Business Green Spotlight).
This year Lucy Electric have made a pledge to increase their focus on sustainability.
A major move has been to bolster the company’s sustainability function. Analysts look at understanding where the business is at with regards to its carbon footprint and actively seek ways to reduce emissions, using carbon accounting software and complying with the ISO 14064–1:2018 GHG standard.
Regular brainstorming meetings are bringing forth ideas on how operational changes can save energy, cut CO2 emissions, reduce waste water and limit plastic consumption. Any changes made will help the environment but we expect over time they will be good for the business too.
This sustainability drive is coming from the right place – the company leadership.
Recently new targets have been agreed. The company is pledging to take part in at least one Biodiversity Net Gain activity per site per annum – and Lucy Electric have 9 sites across the globe! Each of the sites across the world has a Sustainability & CSR champion who rallies their respective local team to contribute to the achievement of this goal. This is in addition to targets for reducing energy consumption, emissions, plastics and non-recyclable waste.
We look forward to hearing all about the operational changes and the Biodiversity Net Gain projects as they become live.
You can read more about the Lucy Electric People, Planet and Progress vision on their website at www.lucyelectric.com/sustainability.
3 Sustainability Tips from Lucy Electric
- Set achievable targets
- Put people in place to achieve those targets
- Look to make the whole company more sustainable
The Thame Business Initiative is a 21st Century Thame project started January 2023).
It’s aim is to engage businesses in the sustainability discussion in 3 ways :
- to showcase what they are already doing and what they are aiming to do,
- to encourage their employees to be involved in local sustainability initiatives and
- to encourage the business to help fund projects being run by the community.
The project has initially been funded by SODC via a South Oxfordshire District Council Councillor Grant 2023.
Lightfoots Solicitors have kindly supported this project to enable us to continue the work further into 2023.
