Crown Paints Recognised For Commitment To Low Carbon Manufacturing Future

Published by Jo Foster for Crown Trade in Housing and also in Communities, Environment

Crown Paints has been awarded the prestigious Green Manufacturer title at the Insider Made In The North West Awards, for its company-wide commitment to forging a low carbon manufacturing future for the region.

The company - which has its manufacturing facility and headquarters at Darwen, Lancashire, as well as a Hull plant and Crown Decorating Centres nationwide - won the accolade for its Earthbalance programme, which engages the whole company and its supply chain towards the considerable target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 10 per cent by 2015 – and 25 per cent by 2020.

Judges of the Green Manufacturer Award – sponsored by Dong Energy - recognised Earthbalance’s clear strategy, tangible targets and the way it involves all staff to achieve a more sustainable future.

In a glittering ceremony held at the Ribby Hall Village, the Insider Made In The North West Awards recognised the cream of manufacturers in the region. Guest speakers included The Rt Hon Francis Maude MP, Minister for The Cabinet Office, and Dave Holmes, Director of Investment and Infrastructure Services at BAE Systems.

This is the fourth award secured by Crown Paints in recent months for Earthbalance. Late last year the paint manufacturer won the Sustainable Innovation Award at the BCF Awards, organised by the industry trade body The British Coatings Federation.

Crown Paints also secured the Sustainable Large Business of the Year accolade in the Lancashire Business Environment Awards, run by environmental charity Groundwork Pennine Lancashire.

The news of Crown’s success in the Green Manufacturer Award came on the eve of Britain’s biggest climate change campaign, Climate Week. Crown Paints is a supporting  partner of the initiative, which runs from 4 – 10 March and uses high profile celebrities and community events to inspire a new wave of action to create a sustainable future.

Mark Lloyd, Crown Paints’ Sustainability Manager, said: “It’s particularly rewarding to mark our support for Climate Week with the Green Manufacturer Award.

“This accolade and the others we have secured recently mean a lot to us. They represent a superb achievement for us all, because everyone has played a part in the success to date of Earthbalance.

“We are now reaping the benefits of a programme which is transforming our environmental performance and sets a blueprint for a more sustainable manufacturing process in the UK.

“Our customers are seeing that we are a brand of substance in terms of taking positive environmental action and that is good for the business overall.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

About Crown Paints:

• Crown Paints is owned by Danish decorative and protective coatings company Hempel, who employ over 5,000 people and operate in more than 80 countries.

• Crown Paints is the Holder of the Royal Warrant by Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen, as Manufacturers of Paints.

• Over 1,250 employees work for Crown Paints, which is based in Darwen in Lancashire, with manufacturing sites in Darwen and Hull, which operate to ISO 9001 accredited quality management system and ISO 14001 environmental management system.

• The company also has a network of 133 Crown Decorating Centres spread throughout the UK and Ireland.

• Crown Paints serves every sector of the decorative coatings market, promoting its market-leading paint and woodcare brands – Crown, Sandtex, Permoglaze, Macpherson, Sadolin and Berger – to consumer and professional audiences alike, as well as key export markets.

• Crown Paints has been making paint for over 200 years.

• Crown Paints is committed to delivering its sustainability targets and its work in this field has been recognised at several regional and national awards. The company is also able to measure the carbon footprint of all of its products and has met its targets of achieving zero waste to landfill.