A technology company in St Neots has spoken to the Hunts Post about its recent push to go green and reduce its carbon footprint.
Pico Technology is based in Colmworth Business Park and creates automotive diagnostic equipment to help diagnose faults in vehicles.
Employees are now transforming the workplace and operations of the company as it expands through an internal group called Pico Planet - setting a target for Pico to become carbon neutral by 2030.
A report in October 2018 from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) inspired Pico's distribution sales manager, Jon Parker, to act and start making a difference.
Jon said: "Everybody’s environmental footprint added up to a position where we are heading into a world that will be uninhabitable.
"I tried to ignore it for six months and then realised that rather than ignoring it, I was going to do something about it, so thankfully, the company were supportive of the ideas."
Jon and the interdepartmental group have already started to make changes by measuring the company's environmental work towards decarbonising.
Changes so far include the refurbishment of the building. It features more than 200 solar panels installed on the roof, which now generates 25-30 per cent of the company's energy.
Further initiatives involve the introduction of proper insulation, manual flush urinals, motion sensor lighting, EV chargers for cars, a crimping machine that recycles cardboard for packaging and many more.
Jon said changes have also been made to company operations. He added: "The big change is about how we travel around in the first place.
"When we did our measurements, actually people flying from a business point of view was by far our biggest measurement.
"Nearly a quarter of our carbon impact is just by flights. So actually pre-pandemic, we were already moving to video calling customers."
Jon said carbon emissions are inevitable in some areas, like shipping goods, but they now make a conscious effort to use carriers with a carbon offset.
The team has also created a climate blueprint for decarbonising businesses, which they intend to share with other companies to inspire change.
Jon added: "We understand what our carbon footprint is, and we know what to do, but actually putting that into practice is the real challenge.
"This is a journey, we don’t know all the answers to the questions, but it’s the journey that’s important.”
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