Thursday, 18th August, 2022
Cory pledges ‘faster’ and ‘bigger’ sustainability commitments
Cory has today published its Sustainability Report 2021, which outlines the company’s ambitious approach to sustainability. The report also restates Cory’s commitment to ensuring the business is fit for purpose over the critical years ahead while helping solve the UK’s waste challenge.
Dougie Sutherland, CEO of Cory, said:
“Cory has committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040. While this is a significant challenge, we all need to be more ambitious if we are going to make a material contribution to mitigating global warming.
“For Cory, ambition means going ‘faster’ and ‘bigger’. ‘Faster’ means working to hit our operational net zero targets by 2030. ‘Bigger’ means planning to be carbon negative in our energy from waste process by 2040 and contributing more widely to the decarbonisation of our local communities.
“We are well advanced in our plans to build a new energy from waste facility to displace waste from landfill. We now have a realistic plan to fully decarbonise and will submit a planning application in 2023 to build a carbon capture plant to decarbonise the waste of the communities we serve. In 2023 we expect to begin construction of the UK’s largest heat network with Vattenfall. We are in the process of developing new plans to support the decarbonisation of road vehicles and river vessels on the Thames – we’ll provide more information on this over the coming months. We are fully committed to ‘faster’ and ‘bigger’ decarbonisation.
“These big actions on decarbonisation complement the day-to-day changes we are making to deliver our sustainability strategy: focusing on energy efficiency, reducing our air quality emissions, hiring more apprentices, and providing training and development opportunities for our people. I’m proud of the progress our people made in 2021, including moving our river fleet to operate entirely on biofuel, joining the Slave Free Alliance to further improve our modern slavery prevention programme and launching the second round of our Community Fund. These are some of the many things that continue to differentiate our unique, river-based business, helping to make Cory an industry leader and an inspiring place to work.”
Key highlights from 2021:
Net zero
- Committed to reach net zero carbon emissions across Cory’s operations by 2040
- Progressed implementation of a significant carbon capture and storage project
- Delivered an overall carbon benefit to the UK economy of 438,000 tonnes/CO2e
- Carried out an assessment to understand the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from Cory’s value chain
- Purchased 100% renewable energy across Cory’s sites
- Set up an electric car leasing scheme and installed 37 electric vehicle chargepoints across six sites for Cory employees
Local environment
- Saved 100,000 truck movements on London’s roads by using the river to transport waste
- Moved Cory’s river fleet onto biofuel, reducing net carbon dioxide emissions by over 90%
- Saved 63,000 litres of fuel across Cory’s fleet of tugs by reducing engine idling time
- Achieved a silver award for outstanding environmental performance from the Port of London Authority Thames Green Scheme
- Continued development of a district heating network that could eventually service over 21,000 homes
People and local communities
- Joined the Slave Free Alliance to further improve Cory’s modern slavery prevention programme
- Launched the second round of the Cory Community Fund
- Delivered the virtual Bexley Eco Festival focused on sustainability and wellbeing
- Launched a new menopause guide to ensure women going through the menopause at Cory are supported at work
- Launched the Cory Apprenticeship Academy to ensure Cory is well equipped with skilled people
In 2021, Cory achieved the highest rating in the GRESB Infrastructure Asset Assessment. Cory was awarded a five-star rating and scored 94 out of 100. This compares to an average peer score of 71, placing Cory first in the performance score out of nine peer businesses, within the category ‘Environmental Services: Waste Treatment’, and 22nd out of 551 businesses that GRESB assesses globally.
Read Cory’s Sustainability Report here.