Sustainability
THE HEART OF EVERYTHING WE DO
"When we see the Earth from space, we see ourselves as a whole. We see the unity and not the divisions."
Stephen Hawkins, Brief Answers to the Big Questions.
At Sustainable Acoustics, we're dedicated to using sound to improve life: safeguarding well-being and upgrading society's experience of the built and natural environment, measuring our direct operational carbon footprint (pillars 1 to 4) setting targets and recommending sustainable acoustic materials. We also strive to embody the five pillars of sustainability through the work that we do: Peace, Plant, People, Place and Prosperity.
People-planet-place-PROSPERITY
"The moment we decide to fulfil something, we can do anything."
Greta Thunberg
OUR VISION
PROTECT We protect human health from harmful exposure to environmental noise, including noise from road traffic, rail, aircraft, and wind turbines and leisure noise. We measure, reduce and offset our emissions from our business operations, and we have committed to being NET ZERO.
CONNECT We bring communities together, create opportunities for well-being and inspire people to engage with sustainability and our natural world.
ENHANCE We listen, create, plan and deliver optimal environments across the built environment with our dedicated acoustic advice and sustainability input into bid proposals.
ACOUSTICS FOR SUSTAINABLE CITIES
92.2% of the UK's population is set to live in cities and towns by 2030.
At Sustainable Acoustics, we protect human health and create supportive learning and living spaces whilst strengthening our connection with nature.
NET zero
2030
We commit to halve our emissions by 2025 and to reach Net Zero by 2030. To do this, we are focusing on transitioning our fleet to EV and buying our own offices where we can generate renewables energy through solar panels and heat pumps.
Read our SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2022 approved by the Board
Race To Zero is a global campaign to rally leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions, investors for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery.
NATURE'S
SOUNDSCAPES
Maintaining our vital connection with nature
Our lives are busier than ever and we increasingly live apart from green spaces, so our need for 'time out' to reconnect with nature has never been more vital to our wellbeing. A soundscaping approach explores connection with comforting sounds of nature into the built and rural environment and evidence indicates it can help protect physical and mental health, connection with our living world in a more restorative way.
NOISE MAPS & WELLBEING
Local Authority and NGO User Requirements Data Collection and Analysis
We undertook research with local authorities across the UK informing the 4th round of 'Noise Mapping' highlighting noisy areas to the public and stakeholders.
We enabled government and local authorities to better understand the challenges and potential for future noise mapping lead to a number of recommendations with signposting to healthier places to be that can support well-being being the most far reaching goal.
SAVE OUR STREETS
Managing noise as we emerge from lockdown
As anyone who has lived near a nightclub, club or pub knows, managing sound is a top priority. We work closely with residential schemes and the entertainment industry to achieve the balance that protects everyone's wellbeing whilst allowing vibrancy to flourish.
SPORT: PROTECTING PLAY
Bringing communities together
Many wouldn’t think twice about wearing hearing protection in a noisy workplace, but we often don't realise that noise can be equally damaging when we’re at play. Our advice optimises sporting environments from clay pigeon shooting to ball sports.
SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS
ECHOPHON
DEEP SUSTAINABILITY
CEILINGS AND PANELS
At Ecophon, sustainability is a promise to do better every day, in every way, for their co-workers, customers and partners in all walks of life.
ROCKWOOL
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
ACOUSTIC ABSORPTION
Creating acoustic products from volcanic rock – a natural material in abundant supply, which is both durable and recyclable
KEY SUSTAINABILITY TARGETS
2021-2025
GOAL 1
Sustainable Supply Chain
We are committed to supporting the transition towards a circular economy and social justice in production. Our target is to complete a full analysis of our supply chain to set a baseline from which to make changes.
TARGET DATE:
November 2021
GOAL 2
Climate Resilience and Risk Register
Our target is to analyse the effects of extreme weather on our operations using the Mission Net Zero and ISO 14090 frameworks. Climate adaptation will increase our business' resilience.
TARGET DATE:
June 2022
GOAL 3
Net Zero with zero offsets.
Our long-term goal is to own our own office and generate renewable energy at source. We can then transition away from offsets completely and power our operations independently and provide EV changing to our staff.
TARGET DATE:
June 2025
RESOURCES
Documents we found useful on our sustainability journey - free for you to download and use
THE BUSINESS CASE
How does Sustainability
make your business more profitable?
Check out this publication from the UK Green Building Council. Download.
UNDERSTANDING NET ZERO
This report makes sense of what net zero means for the built environment industry.
YOUR COMPANY'S CARBON FOOTPRINT
Detailed document detailing how to calculate company Scope 1,2 & 3 greenhouse gas emissions.
OUR KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
We take the impact of our business operations seriously. Here are our key achievements:
100% Green Energy from Ecotricity
We choose to pay higher energy tariffs because Ecotricity is the ONLY supplier investing in green bio-gas production and renewables innovation.
LED lights, boiler and thermal windows
We identified avoidable greenhouse gas emissions and we invested to insulate and reduce energy use.
Solar Panels
20% of our acoustics kit is now powered by our own solar powered renewable energy, meaning kit on site does not require battery power.
£7000 spent on energy saving
Despite renting our building, we spent £7000 of our own money on LED lighting, a new boiler, new windows and an EV charge point to reduce our operational energy usage.
Sustainable Acoustics joins RACE TO ZERO
In April 2020 we began offsetting our greenhouse gases and are have joined the Race to Zero.
Carbon Footprint Scope 1,2 & 3
We are proud that we took a deep dive into our carbon footprint, using DEFRA conversion factors to calculate each source of GHG across our operations, identifying trends across a five-year period and setting targets for reduction.
EV switch
Business travel was a key source of GHG emissions, so we bought and EV car and installed an EV point.
Recycling and Composting
We weigh, measure and calculate green house gases connected with waste every year, and we have decreased the % waste sent to landfill.
Get in Touch
Unit G, Meadow View Business Park, Winchester Road, Lower Upham, SO32 1HJ
Email: sa@sustainableacoustics.co.uk / Tel: 01962 858800