Sustainability Week at Joseph Ash Galvanizing
Last week was sustainability week at Joseph Ash Galvanizing; a week for colleagues to focus on all things sustainability.
It can be easy to forget about sustainability when busy with day-to-day tasks, so the week serves to encourage colleagues to focus on environmental impacts and engage with the natural environment.
As part of the wider Hill & Smith PLC Group, Joseph Ash Galvanizing’s Technical department developed several activities and initiatives for the week to boost our site’s green credentials, have fun, and compete for prizes.
Take a look at some of the activities that took place across our sites below:
Biodiversity initiatives
Some of our galvanizing sites have large spaces of land surrounding them, which could be rewilded to encourage biodiversity. Managers were encouraged to let nature reclaim some of this excess land by allocating sections to be reclaimed by nature and scattering wildflower seeds to encourage new plant growth.
The new areas reclaimed by nature also serve to give colleagues a change of scenery, and potentially allow for new break areas for colleagues as we get closer to the warmer months.
Our Telford site was particularly keen to share their rewilding activities, fencing off a section of land using galvanized steel and dedicating the land enclosed to wildflower growth.
A competition to make the best birdbox was also held to further encourage biodiversity, with vouchers up for grabs for the winner.
Litter picking
Our Telford and Walsall sites have been busy taking part in some litter picking. The litter picked up can be correctly recycled instead of being left out and harming the environment.
Energy saving treasure hunt
To reduce carbon footprints at each of our sites, colleagues were encouraged to form groups and walk around the sites and and evaluate their environment, keeping sustainability in mind. This could include turning off lights, machines and other resources and questioning if they need to be used.
The energy saving treasure hunt is not a new concept; it was developed in 1999 by Toyota, and is a great activity for all companies to conduct, regardless of industry.
Competitions and prizes
There’s nothing like a bit of friendly competition, especially if it helps the environment! Prizes will be awarded for colleagues on a number of different categories:
- “Best Birdbox” award for the colleague who makes the best birdbox, with a voucher up for grabs for the winner – congratulations to Team Premier Galvanizing Corby!
- “Greatest Reduction in Energy” award for the site with the greatest reduction in CO² emissions per ton of galvanized steel for the month of May.
- “Most Sustainable Site” award for the site with the lowest year-to-date CO² output relative to galvanizing output.
Winners will be confirmed in the next few days/weeks.
Karl Hicks, Environmental and ESG Advisor at Joseph Ash, commented on the week:
“It’s been a great Sustainability Week where all the sites I’ve been to have shown real enthusiasm for getting involved, with dare I say a bit of competitive spirit. I am particularly chuffed with the fusion of “sustainability” & “galvanizing” that I’ve seen this week that demonstrates that the two are interconnected within the circular economy.
“My initial ideas for how sites could get involved have been improved on. I know that other things are in the pipeline across the sites in the next few weeks, and I’m looking forward to seeing those and dishing out awards for them accordingly.”
Overall, the week has been a huge success. Thank you and well done to all for your efforts in improving our sustainability and environmental impact!
Interested in learning more about our sustainability initiatives?