New Environmental Impact Charter unveiled
17/05/2020
WesCom Signal & Rescue has created a new Environmental Impact Charter.
It is a pledge to review all our practices, become more sustainable and reduce waste.
The Environmental Impact Charter was unveiled at November 2019’s Distributor Dinner in the Netherlands, but the process will be on-going – a culture change.
We aim to lessen our environmental impact by:
- Reducing waste
- Using more environmentally-friendly components in our products, while maintaining quality
- Increasing our use of clean energy
- Cutting out the use of single-use plastics
- Lowering our carbon footprint
- And much more…
Chris Feibusch, Director of Global Marketing and Communications, says, “Our Environmental Impact Charter is a pledge to review all our practices to reduce our environmental impact. We are taking responsibility for reducing waste by revising practices throughout our sites, in the factory and all the way through to the products themselves and even extending to the partners with whom we work as a business.
“There are things we can do immediately and things that take time. We can reduce our carbon footprint and single-use plastics. Clean energy can be used. We can re-engineer products to reduce their environmental impact and many other things besides. Basically, every single member of staff can do their bit.”
The WesCom Group already has green products in its defence product range. For instance, WesCom Defence’s ManPADS simulator is totally self-consuming once fired and leaves no debris in the atmosphere or in the ground.
The Impact Simulator Thunderflash has also been made more sustainable. Traditionally the product disintegrated littering the battlefield area with polystyrene, but WesCom Defence’s Impact Simulator MECoSt stays intact meaning there are no fragments or debris after deployment.
The company already has a disposal facility in Spain where we recycle plastic parts and only incinerate the pyrotechnic compound, which is then filtered through a sophisticated scrubbersystem, to minimise the impact on the environment. The by-products of the incineration process can even be used to help fertilise farmers’ fields!
WesCom Signal & Rescue is working closely with Bianca Jayne-Carr, founder of The Final Straw Solent – a community motivated to shedding light and taking action on the damaging impacts of plastic pollution – to consult and guide the company. Bianca has worked with over 250 companies to date, driving businesses to be more environmentally aware and help sustain the world for the future.
Bianca comments, “We are really excited to be working with WesCom on its Environmental Impact Charter. As a non-profit, Community Interest Company, we are passionate about working with local businesses to help them minimise their environmental impact and future-proof our local seas and wider oceans. We have some great plans in the pipeline and look forward to sharing these.”
The Environmental Impact Charter also means that WesCom Signal & Rescue is encouraging its distributors to review their own practices. Environmentally-friendly supply and distribution factors may influence WesCom Signal & Rescue’s hiring practices in future, says Chris.
