At Ego, our strategic vision is for our manufacturing to be carbon neutral by 2050. To help achieve this, we have embarked on a number of sustainability projects to reduce our energy and water usage, increase our use of renewable energy and minimise our waste going to landfill.
*These goals relate to Ego’s manufacturing, and are calculated per kilogram of product compared with 2019.
The majority of our energy consumption comes from water purification, air compression, operating production machinery, treating waste water, and services including heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) which provides pharmaceutical-grade clean air in our clean rooms, and storage conditions such as cooling, and lighting.
We constantly strive to reduce our carbon emissions by actively reducing the amount of electricity and gas that we use from the grid.
So far we have already installed 253kW of solar array across our manufacturing sites, which generated 310,000 kWh of power for us in 2022. We have also switched to LED lights and made significant HVAC upgrades, as well as installing newer, more energy-efficient manufacturing equipment to help us achieve significant reductions in the amount carbon emissions produced per tonne of product made.
Water use has been reduced through a number of measures. Rain water is collected in 26 water tanks and is used in non-potable applications such as in toilets and gardens. In production, substantial water savings have been realised by introducing longer production runs which reduces cleaning between batches, steam condensate and waste water recovery, and increased factory efficiency.
Through a focused effort sorting, reusing and recycling what waste we can, we are reducing the amount of waste from manufacturing that goes to landfill. E-waste, polystyrene, cardboard, paper, soft plastic and glass is recycled, pallets and cardboard outers are returned to suppliers for re-use, and we are continuing to audit and look at ways that we can further reduce our waste.
Within our Products section, we outline how we are further reducing waste from a consumer perspective.
