SUSTAINABILITY SPECIAL
SOLID
FOUNDATIONS
Brick manufacturer, Ibstock, has built a
reputation for sustainable operations
that is the envy of the rest of the sector.
Manufacturing Management met with
the company’s sustainability manager
to learn more
BY CHRIS BECK
Michael McGowan, group
sustainability manager at national
brick manufacturer, Ibstock, is
one of the biggest voices in UK
manufacturing’s sustainability focus.
He was recently named Energy
Manager of the Year at the prestigious edie
Sustainability Leaders Awards for his work in
turning the company, which has sites across the
UK and boasts over 450 product ranges, into a
world–leader in sustainable manufacturing. MM
spoke to McGowan after his award win to fi nd
out more about the secret to Ibstock’s success.
Manufacturing Management: How
important is sustainability to Ibstock?
Michael McGowan: We recognised the
importance of sustainability many years ago.
When ESOS, the Energy-Saving Opportunity
Scheme, came in six years ago, one of the routes
to compliance was the ISO 50001 standard.
Rather than just doing the bare minimum ESOS
audits, we chose to pursue 50001 as we recognised
that that approach would mean we gained more
engagement with our employees, which meant
we took a completely diff erent approach to
sustainability – a people-fi rst approach beyond
just doing the easy part of legislation compliance;
we recognise that engaged people are good for the
business, especially when it comes to energy and
carbon reduction. It’s about having the vision and
the ability to get change within the business.
Our sector is particularly highly energyintensive,
and we have a long history of
investment going back over many years to try and
counteract this. For example, in 2007, just before
the fi nancial crisis, we invested £50 million in
a state-of-the-art factory in Newcastle. In 2013
we invested £22 million at a facility in Stoke-on-
Trent. Both those factories were the most energyeffi
cient of their kind in the world at the time.
In late 2018 we opened a new £54 million plant
in Leicester,
which is the most energy-
energyeffi
cient brick factory of its kind
anywhere in the world. It uses
65% less energy and carbon
compared to a plant built in the
1970s. We recycle 62 million
litres of water at the plant – no
mains water is used at all during
the production process.
MM: How important is it to
get your people on board
with any energy e ciency
programme?
MMcG: People-led change is
integral to everything we do. We
have been rolling out an energyeffi
cient lighting programme for
18 months, which is due to fi nish
later this year. I visit all of our
factories to check on progress,
and make sure to communicate
with every employee and give
them guidance on why are we
changing the lighting and what
they can do to cut their energy
use. We use this approach for
pretty much every major project
we undertake.
MM: How do you reinforce
the importance of
sustainable operations
to your employees?
Ibstock’s £54m
factory in
Leicester is the
most energye
cient of its
kind in the world
MMcG: In September of
last year, we launched a
sustainability roadmap, which is
the fi rst time we have publicly
released our sustainability
targets as a business. We have
shown it to every employee
as well – we let them learn
all about it and look over the
roadmap before we released it.
The roadmap is based on
four key pillars: customers
and suppliers, environment,
people and community. Under
each pillar are targets – for
instance, under customers and
suppliers is a goal for 10% of
our sales turnover to be from
sustainable products, and 100%
of our suppliers to be compliant
with our sustainable supplier
code of conduct. By that we
mean asking our suppliers to
collaborate with us to reduce
carbon together. What action
are they taking, and what more
can we be doing to ensure
compliance?
The environment pillar sees
the reduction in mains water,
a 15% reduction in carbon and
zero waste to landfi ll. The
people pillar aims for a 50%
reduction in lost time incident
frequency rate, as well as
various diversity targets. Finally,
the community pillar asks for
24 www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk
/www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk