Welcome to Thomas Swan’s Sixth Sustainability Report.

One of the most encouraging things about sustainability is that we can all individually make a difference and that it makes financial sense to be a sustainable company. Even small changes at home or work add up to a significant impact when multiplied by whole nations or industries. This year we ran a campaign to encourage employees to turn off lights. The statistics provided by the carbon trust are remarkable. We are therefore in the process of installing automatic cut off sensors for all our non-safety critical lights across the site.

Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd have also committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030. Over the coming year we will assess our current carbon footprint and then work hard to reduce our emissions against this benchmark.

Modern Slavery Act

Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. is committed to ensuring that all of its business operations are free from involvement with slavery or human trafficking. With sustainability firmly embedded in our company’s culture and strategy, we strive to continually improve in this important area.

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Environment

Responsible Care and the Environment

As a company which is intimately involved in the handling, production, shipment and disposal of chemicals, we take all possible care to ensure that our activities are managed and monitored in a responsible way.

Environmental responsibility has been a recurrent theme throughout our history – the business was founded in 1926 by recycling slag from the local steel industry. More recently the core products from the 1970’s, such as Casamid™ curing agents for coatings, used water-based technology to replace more polluting solvents. Our polyurethane materials are similar, some using water instead of solvents. Pepton™, which is a key rubber additive manufactured at Consett, is a major energy saver for the rubber industry, allowing rubber to be processed much more efficiently.

We have established ourselves as UK leader in the application of environmental management systems and were one of the first recipients of the International Standards ISO 14001 award for environmental management.

Thomas Swan is also a long standing signatory of the Chemical Industries Association’s Responsible Care programme and was the first company in the world to gain external verification of its Responsible Care management system.

Schools

Science Education and Industrial Engagement

In the early 1990’s Tom Swan recognised the importance of engaging with children about the role of the chemical industry in our society, and commissioned a three year programme with the Chemical Industries Education Centre (CIEC) at the University of York. The Children Challenging Industry programme included specially designed class room sessions, with practical experiments, to capture children’s interest in chemistry and demonstrate the importance of the chemical industry. The project involved 44 schools and 1,300 children in North East England in the specialised teaching programme and industrial site visits.

At the start of the project the children initially perceived industry as “noisy, dark and hot”. Afterwards 90% of children completing questionnaires demonstrated a more positive and informed attitude towards the industry and the desirability of a career in chemicals.

For more information please visit: www.ciec.org.uk

School Visits

Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. continues to engage with children in an effort to demonstrate the link between science and their world. Between 1996 and 2006 over 2000 children interacted with the company and over 1500 visited our site at Consett. Similarly undergraduates from Durham University Chemistry are invited every year to visit the site to demonstrate the link between their studies and industry.

We welcome any requests by schools, colleges or universities to visit our company and gain a better understanding of our business, as well as an insight into the chemical industry.

For more information please contact us through our enquiries page or call our head office and ask for advice.

Community

Engaging with our neighbours

Although the history of Consett is dominated by heavy industry, we have always understood the importance of listening to, engaging with, and being a part of our local community – especially as our manufacturing site is situated alongside homes and schools in Consett.

We make every effort to ensure that our activities cause as little disruption as possible but from time to time we recognise that individuals may wish to raise concerns. If you have any such concerns, or simply want to know more about our company and our activities please feel free to phone us and ask to speak to a senior member of staff. Or fill out the enquiry form or write to us and someone will respond to your message as quickly as possible.

Advice in the event of a major accident

As part of new Health & Safety regulations, Thomas Swan & Co. Ltd. is required to advise local residents on what to do in the unlikely event of a major accident; the advice is to remain indoors with doors and windows closed until given the ‘all clear’ via the emergency services. Ongoing information may be provided by local radio stations or the police.

We would like to stress that there have been no significant changes to the activities on the site, this advice is solely to comply with new regulations.

Ecovadis Sustainability Rating

Thomas Swan havebeen awarded platinum status for the second year running by well-known sustainability platform, EcoVadis. This was achieved with a score of 78%, a significant improvement over the previous score of 73%.

Thomas Swan not only came out in the top 1% of companies overall but they scored impressively in the following areas:

• Environment – top 1%
• Labour & Human Rights – top 10%
• Ethics – top 7%
• Sustainable Procurement – top 2%

This is an amazing achievement for a medium-sized company and puts Thomas Swan on a par with, or even ahead of, some of the World’s largest chemical companies.

Previous Sustainability Brochures

Sustainability Brochure 2022

As always, this year’s report shows some
encouraging progress and some areas
that require continued efforts or greater
attention. It is also worth remembering
that sustainability is not just about
climate change commitments. For us, it
is also about ensuring we are here for
the long term. Setting up the Company to
run in a way that perpetuates its survival
and long-term success.

Click the front cover of our 2021 Sustainability Brochure to view or download the full document.

Click to enlarge

Sustainability Brochure 2021

As with previous years, we have made excellent progress against some targets but still have work to do with others. Highlights this year include the reduction in carbon emissions by 10% from 4,194.13 tCO2e to 3770.29 tCO2e, the significant increase in the levels of renewable electricity used from the Anaerobic Digestion plant, the improvements to our
new product development system, the implementation of GEMBA Boards in Production and the excellent progress in implementing three new digital systems.

Click the front cover of our 2021 Sustainability Brochure to view or download the full document.

Click to enlarge

Sustainability Brochure 2020

2020 saw a number of excellent achievements. The reduction in our waste (down 23%), water (down 43%), electricity usage (down 4%) and gas consumption (down 14%) was very encouraging and was principally due to innovative engineering modifications. I was also pleased to see a 6% reduction in our VOC emissions.

Perhaps the biggest project of the year was the calculation of our current carbon emissions. We worked closely with the Carbon Trust to assess our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, which were confirmed as 5081.99 tCO2e (market based) with most of our carbon footprint linked to our use of natural gas (Scope 1) to heat our reactions.

Click the front cover of our 2020 Sustainability Brochure to view or download the full document.

Click to enlarge

Sustainability Brochure 2019

This year we ran a campaign to encourage employees to turn off lights. The statistics provided by the carbon trust were remarkable and resulted in automatic cut off sensors being installed for all our non-safety critical lights across the site.

We also committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030, we will assess our current carbon footprint and then work hard to reduce our emissions against this benchmark. We will give more detail on how we will work towards this in future issues of our annual sustainability report.

Click the front cover of our 2019 Sustainability Brochure to view or download the full document.

Click to enlarge

Sustainability Brochure 2018

One of the most encouraging things about sustainability is that we can all individually make a difference and it makes financial sense to be a sustainable company. Even small changes at home or work add up to a significant impact when multiplied by whole nations or industries. It is remarkably easy to go about our daily routines without considering this precarious position and to comfort ourselves that climate change probably won’t impact our lives and that it is the job of industry and government to sort it all out. The stark reality, is that we all, individuals, companies and governments must act now.

Click the front cover of our 2018 Sustainability Brochure to view or download the full document.

Click to enlarge

Sustainability Brochure 2017

We are always searching for ways to maintain our business for the long term while reducing our impact on the environment and looking after our people.

Sustainability is a journey and we recognise that we will sometimes make progress in one area while occasionally falling behind in another. What matters is that we are open and realistic about our goals and results. This report does not seek to hide from our missed targets and therefore strengthens our resolve to do more over the coming year.

Click the front cover of our 2017 Sustainability Brochure to view or download the full document.

Click to enlarge

Sustainability Brochure 2016

In 2016, we launched our current five-year rolling strategy which placed greater emphasis on sustainability.

Our Purpose is to inspire and deliver creative and sustainable chemistry.

Our Vision is to be a pioneering, globally-recognised, sustainable manufacturer of speciality chemicals. But what is a “sustainable manufacturer of speciality chemicals?”– and why is it important that Thomas Swan embraces sustainability?

We believe sustainability means three things: to be a successful company for the long term; to reduce the impact of our operations on our planet; and to look after our people and community.

Click the front cover of our 2016 Sustainability Brochure to view or download the full document.

Click to enlarge

Sustainable Procurement

At Thomas Swan, we take sustainability very seriously, and this includes purchasing and procurement activities.

In 2020, we achieved an overall score on the EcoVadis sustainability platform of 78%, which gained us the Platinum award. This was improved to 78% in 2022, giving us the Platinum award for the second time. Our Sustainable Procurement performance improved from 60% in 2020 to 70% in 2022, demonstrating our constant aim to improve our performance.

In 2020, we issued a Sustainable Procurement Policy Sustainable_procurement_policy

As the contracting organisation, we expect our suppliers to ensure their practices are supportive of our approach. We would like to procure goods and services that have been produced or are delivered with minimum impact on the environment and with regard for social issues such as employment conditions and welfare.

As a result, we reserve the right to refuse partnerships with organisations that do not achieve, or are unable to provide evidence of an action plan of, the following minimum standards for their operations, employees and supply chain; these are in accordance with International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions and other public sector commitments.

With our Sustainable Procurement Policy, we aim to ensure that all suppliers not only look after the environment where they operate, but also provide a healthy and safe working environment for their workers. The following provisions are expected of all our suppliers:

• Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining
• Elimination of All Forms of Forced and Compulsory Labour
• Elimination of Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation
• Effective Abolition of Child Labour

We have established a scoring system to assist us with vendor assessment and supplier selection. This will consider a supplier’s EcoVadis rating as part of the overall selection process. For suppliers that can demonstrate they have a Platinum award from EcoVadis, this will add an additional 5 points to their score. This could be enough to award them business in favour of companies that do not have a good EcoVadis score.

We are constantly striving for continual improvement in every area of the business, and we believe that cooperation with our suppliers in this area will help improve standards.