With COP26 underway, Scottish business Glencairn Crystal has announced it has undertaken extensive expansion and remodelling of its factory and offices headquartered in East Kilbride, just outside Glasgow. The manufacturer of the famous Glencairn whisky-tasting glass makes over four million Glencairn Glasses per year, across hundreds of brands and distributed to over 140 countries worldwide.
As part of the company’s strategy to increase its level of sustainability and future-proof every aspect of its production business, Glencairn says it has invested £2 million over the past 12 months into its building infrastructure, factory processes and environmental programme. Additionally, the business is looking to become 100% dependent on its own solar energy.
Glencairn’s investment includes the installation of an extensive solar power and energy storage system. Any excess electricity generated from the system will be sent back to the grid and can be repurposed for other local usage.
This photovoltaic system has enabled Glencairn to immediately reduce its gas usage by 30% – the plan is for this to rise to 60% over the next five years, eventually leading to removal of gas energy altogether over the next ten years. The installation of the system has also allowed the team to put in an air conditioning system for employees on the factory floor level.
The recent addition of electric car charging points to the company car park means that all company cars are now either fully electric or hybrid.
Furthermore, day-to-day office functions such as recycling and packaging have been carefully considered, with the ambition to re-use and reduce, rather than just recycle, and remove the use of plastic packaging entirely over the next five years. The company works with Viridor, a scheme to collect all cardboard and paper from the site for recycling.
However, this scheme is also under further review, with the team looking to install an industrial shredding machine. This would enable all cardboard waste to be shredded and re-used for packaging purposes, making the business self-sufficient within this area, rather than having to rely on resource-heavy recycling methods.
Paul Davidson, managing director at Glencairn, said, “As a socially and environmentally responsible family business, we are strongly influenced by the families’ children’s views on the environment, as they are the future of both our business and our planet. By shaping our policies and practices around what they believe, we are confident of building a far more sustainable future...”
James Crilly, purchasing director at Glencairn Crystal, added, “...Our investment in a sustainable solar PV energy system, alongside a number of key initiatives to encourage the entire company to become more instinctive in their everyday choices, is driving a step-change in the business.
“Our ambition is to be 100% reliable on electrical energy over the next five years, whilst looking to increasingly re-use and reduce the energy we’re using in recycling. As a business that makes premium glassware designed to last a lifetime, we believe this is fully achievable and must be at the heart of what we do.”
As part of the company’s strategy to increase its level of sustainability and future-proof every aspect of its production business, Glencairn says it has invested £2 million over the past 12 months into its building infrastructure, factory processes and environmental programme. Additionally, the business is looking to become 100% dependent on its own solar energy.
Glencairn’s investment includes the installation of an extensive solar power and energy storage system. Any excess electricity generated from the system will be sent back to the grid and can be repurposed for other local usage.
This photovoltaic system has enabled Glencairn to immediately reduce its gas usage by 30% – the plan is for this to rise to 60% over the next five years, eventually leading to removal of gas energy altogether over the next ten years. The installation of the system has also allowed the team to put in an air conditioning system for employees on the factory floor level.
The recent addition of electric car charging points to the company car park means that all company cars are now either fully electric or hybrid.
Furthermore, day-to-day office functions such as recycling and packaging have been carefully considered, with the ambition to re-use and reduce, rather than just recycle, and remove the use of plastic packaging entirely over the next five years. The company works with Viridor, a scheme to collect all cardboard and paper from the site for recycling.
However, this scheme is also under further review, with the team looking to install an industrial shredding machine. This would enable all cardboard waste to be shredded and re-used for packaging purposes, making the business self-sufficient within this area, rather than having to rely on resource-heavy recycling methods.
Paul Davidson, managing director at Glencairn, said, “As a socially and environmentally responsible family business, we are strongly influenced by the families’ children’s views on the environment, as they are the future of both our business and our planet. By shaping our policies and practices around what they believe, we are confident of building a far more sustainable future...”
James Crilly, purchasing director at Glencairn Crystal, added, “...Our investment in a sustainable solar PV energy system, alongside a number of key initiatives to encourage the entire company to become more instinctive in their everyday choices, is driving a step-change in the business.
“Our ambition is to be 100% reliable on electrical energy over the next five years, whilst looking to increasingly re-use and reduce the energy we’re using in recycling. As a business that makes premium glassware designed to last a lifetime, we believe this is fully achievable and must be at the heart of what we do.”
