News & Media

Why Process Carbon Neutrality?

At Midas, our business is centred on working with companies who develop science and high technology products.

Customers that innovate and develop products that help save and enhance the quality of lives.

Customers that bring new technology in to our world and improve the environment around us.

So as their manufacturing partner it is crucial that we provide a supply chain that works in harmony with these values and one that can stand up to future scrutiny. Especially now, as focus bears down on the issues being faced over climate change.

2019 saw the start of our 30th year in business and whilst we felt an immense sense of pride in what we had achieved, from just two patternmakers to a seventy five strong, UK leading moulding company, we also felt an urgency to change.

So in April last year we decided to set up the #MidasGreenInitiative. To give voice and meaning to our change in mind-set and to acknowledge our position as a responsible and environmentally aware, manufacturing company.

Consumer behaviour is changing...

Research indicates that two thirds of consumers think more positively about brands that demonstrate a neutral or reducing carbon foot print.

Research also indicates 75% of the CO² within a product is generated by the supply chain. So it is vital that manufacturing companies like Midas, focus on achieving a low carbon/carbon neutral process and investigate how to achieve carbon neutrality.

The Objective

Our ambition was clear.

To pro-actively seek out and implement change throughout our entire manufacturing process to reduce our carbon footprint.

To engage with our employees, suppliers and customers to update them on our progress and encourage further support

Ultimately, become more responsible for our manufacturing actions.

The Plan

Take positive action, invest and implement green changes every day possible.

Part of our manufacturing process would always use ‘earth chemistry’ but if we worked really hard the possibility of Process Carbon Neutrality was a reality, so that became our ultimate goal.

The strategy was simple.

Perform comprehensive business and factory audits, from energy usage and providers through to packaging, transportation and a thorough assessments of all waste streams.

Identify an order of implementation based on three fundamental criteria; resource availability, investment level and significance to final goal.

As day by day actions were taken and investments made, we edged closer to the final goal of process carbon neutrality.

And with each major change, we spread the news across our communicate channels.

A really important aspect to the Midas green initiative is not one of commercial advantage but rather to share knowledge.

To educate others to create an environmental momentum.

This included sharing links to the companies that had supported and helped us along the way. To hopefully inspire others to take the first step and invest in their green future (All relisted at the end!)

The Targets

To achieve Process Carbon Neutrality by summer 2020 we focused on four key areas.

100% energy sourced and certified from Renewable Energy Providers (Gas and Electricity)
30% Reduction in energy consumption
50% Reduction in refuse waste including 100% removal of all single use plastics
Communication - internal and external

On the 25th June 2020 the installation of our solar farm was completed and we flicked the switch.

In just 14 months, we achieved our ambition.

A process carbon neutral,

plastic manufacturing company

Throughout the 18 month project our employees have been amazing.

Embracing all changes and facing challenges head on, whilst managing day to day operations in a very busy production environment. The company ethos is now one of environmental responsibility.

Reducing our carbon footprint so you can reduce your product CO² content.

The Future

Customers are starting to express genuine interest in the #MidasGreenInitiative as they too can see greater benefits to their company offerings. A customer questionnaire ran in May 2020 indicates that whilst percentage results are still low, there is a sense that consumers are starting to drive change.

Final Thoughts

The Midas Green Initiative has demanded significant investment but this is an investment in our future. A necessity for the environment but one that also makes complete financial sense. Take a look at just some of the benefits we are already seeing:-

30 rolls less of bubble wrap each month
50% reduction in our refuse collection costs.
100% paperbased recyclable packaging solutions.
60% reduction on energy usage saved due to installation of new Atlas Copco compressor - ROI in just 1.5 years. Read how we back up these figures here.
Fixed energy price for the next 30 years for 1/3 of our energy usage (Solar).
32% of our annual electricity generated by solar farm.
Solar power is 1/3rd the cost of the current electricity price so energy bills will reduce.

As environmental concerns increase and consumers take more interest in how products are manufactured, there will be a greater focus on companies to become more ethical and to source from supply chains who can demonstrate that they have been responsible.