Structural Adhesives Ltd.’s progressive social impact journey

The sea change in worldwide attitudes towards how we impact on our surrounding community and the environment and has never been more relevant.  Manufacturing and in particular, the Chemicals Industries, have their part to play redressing the issue. Structural Adhesives Ltd is committed to sustainability, the environment and always seeking better solutions and this drives our business values. With the United Nations sustainable achievement goals in mind, for the past few years and months our team have been taking measures to improve our social impact.

All manner of business areas can have an impact on the wider community. A particularly relevant area for our business is the use of energy and resources in the manufacture of our products and the impact of this on the climate. There is a carbon footprint for all manufactured items and this is inescapable. As well as the energy used in the production of a product itself, energy is used to extract, mine, grind and transport the raw materials. Structural Adhesives Ltd understands the processes involved in the manufacture and distribution of fillers and additives and chooses raw materials carefully when formulating to bear this in mind. Minimising our carbon footprint is of high priority at Structural Adhesives Ltd and we source locally where possible. As well as considering the environmental factors of our supply chain Structural Adhesives Ltd are also conscious of only working with suppliers that have first rate ethics policies.

Often the raw materials that go into adhesives are from unsustainable resources such as fossil fuels, Structural Adhesives Ltd have been developing and formulating products with reduced amounts of these raw materials and are investigating alternatives such as biobased raw materials. Also, regular readers of the blog will already be aware of our constant research into reduction of plastic packaging and waste. In addition to actively reducing the impact of our processes on the environment, the technical team at Structural Adhesives Ltd are always looking for area’s in which we can use our knowledge to have a positive impact. This includes research into areas such as renewable energy and more environmentally friendly transportation that may require the use of adhesives.

Alongside our environmental policies Structural Adhesives Ltd are starting to try to use our position to improve the community in our local area and also the wider scientific community.  Structural Adhesives Ltd is a female lead company that is very diverse and inclusive and we are seeking to improve opportunities for all and to promote STEM wherever possible. As part of the chemicals industry, we are well aware of the issues surrounding gender imbalance and diversity. Many of the industries we service including Aerospace, Engineering and Construction are heavily male dominated. Additionally, our MD has come from a teaching background and absolutely believes in the necessity of redressing the imbalance that currently exists in STEM. As a result, our MD and the all-female technical have all become Women in Construction Ambassadors and helped support and drive diversity and equality across the built environment. Furthermore, the technical team have spoken to both students and teachers at exhibitions about the vast range of career prospects in STEM particularly opportunities with small businesses like ours. Structural Adhesives Ltd have plans to participate in more outreach and community involvement programmes in the future.