The agreement comes on top of Saint-Gobain’s recent commitment to move all of its 3,200 company cars to fully electric by the end of 2023.
As the COP 26 conference focusses on decarbonizing transportation, Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland, one of the UK’s largest manufacturers and distributors of building solutions has signed a new partnership with ROLEC, one of the UK’s leading charging manufacturers, to support the delivery of a 1,000 charger point network across Saint-Gobain’s sites, offices and retail branches over the next five years.
The agreement comes on top of Saint-Gobain’s recent commitment to move all of its 3,200 company cars to fully electric by the end of 2023 [or hybrid if only absolutely essential as a stepping stone to electric], investments in new Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil HGV’s, which will reduce carbon dioxide per mile by around 90% for its British Gypsum, Artex and some distribution brands and the roll out of electric Mechanical Handling Equipment.
The 1,000 charging point network is in addition to Saint-Gobain’s commitment to install an electric car charging point fitted at 3,200 company car drivers’ homes where they are able to accommodate a charging point.
Over the next five years the company expects these changes to remove 11,000 tonnes of CO2 from its activity.
“Our purpose is Making the World a Better Home and reducing our carbon footprint is integral to this. We are committed to be net zero carbon by 2050 and meet additional science based targets by 2030 so it’s essential we act quickly where we can and accelerate the actions we’re taking to reduce the carbon footprint of our transportation and reduce the impact on the planet from our colleagues who need to drive for work,” said Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland CEO, Mike Chaldecott.
The 1,000 site charger network will allow employees and visitors to recharge while on-site with brands such as Jewson, British Gypsum, Gibbs & Dandy, Minster and all Saint-Gobain office locations. All Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland brands will benefit from chargers being installed; 500 of the 1,000 locations will be at Jewson branches.
Roll-out of the charger network is already underway with 750 expected to be installed each year for the next five years.
Saint-Gobain will also be using Rolec’s charger management system, VendElectric, which will allow the business to control and manage the charging network and allow it to assess usage and enable staff and visitors to find information on real-time charger availability.
Chaldecott added: “Having an extensive charging network, for colleagues and visitors, is essential to making the rapid transition to electric cars as easy as possible for people. From the end of 2023 we want colleagues travelling in a company vehicle or on company business to do that in an ultra-low emission electric car and over the next five years, with the help of this new partnership we’ll be installing 4,500 charging locations country wide – 1,000 of them on our sites for colleagues and visitors. Taking action like this will help us make the change happen as quickly as possible and we’re very pleased with this small but important step to help make the world a better home.”
