Reducing our Impact on the Environment

UAP has always been a socially and environmentally responsible company, having implemented and taken part in countless initiatives over the years to do our bit for the environment and our community. We work closely with our suppliers and customers around the world to implement ethical and environmentally-friendly business solutions.

What effect can business have on the environment?

The main problems that affect the environment and contribute to global warming are greenhouse gases and plastic waste. Every individual, household, and business organisation, or really anything that uses and produces resources, has a carbon footprint. This is the total greenhouse gas emissions produced and amount of energy used. The approximate carbon footprint of your household or business can be calculated using a carbon footprint calculator.

Businesses will also have an indirect carbon footprint – for example, the waste or emissions produced by people using their products.

Plastic waste is also a major problem for our environment, as it fills up our landfills which are already at maximum capacity, and also appears in our oceans. Thousands of tonnes of plastic waste from western countries including the UK are also shipped to other countries such as Malaysia every year, and is essentially dumped there. That’s because the UK produces plastic waste in such enormous volumes that we currently do not have the means to deal with it by recycling or adequate disposal. Plastics will not normally biodegrade on their own for decades or even centuries, and so every piece of plastic that we use is destined to stay with us.

What do UAP do differently?

We have taken major steps over the years to reduce our energy consumption as a business. Our offices and warehouses are powered mainly by solar power, and we use lower-energy electricals (e.g. eco lightbulbs) and have properly insulated our buildings to ensure that they retain heat, so we don’t have to use as much energy to stay warm at work in winter and cool in summer. As a result, we use around a third of the energy of the average medium-sized business per month.

Starting with our brand Intelligent Hardware, we are cutting out all plastic from our packaging. We intend to do the same with all our other products and will be using 100% biodegradable materials including cardboard and an bio-polymer made from potato starch.

As a door hardware company, most of our products are made from metals. We ensure that we source these sustainably so that our products are not damaging the earth.

We have implemented many other environmental initiatives in our community as well as within the company; visit our Environment page to learn more.