Sustainability

At MRT Castings, we work in partnership with our suppliers, customers and employees to minimise our combined impact on the environment and our global natural resources.

With a commitment to continual improvement, we are able to provide a safe and comfortable working environment for our team, while simultaneously minimising waste in our processes.

To do this, we always operate in the most efficient way possible – such as minimising our resource use, recycling materials and even re-using them where practical.

Pro-active in our compliance with all applicable environmental and health and safety regulations, we also aim to prevent pollution arising from our operations, minimising disruption and disturbances to the local community.

Here’s some more of the precise steps we’re taking to increase sustainability in our operations…

Compliance

MRT's Environmental Management Systems are certified to BS EN ISO 14001:2015, underlining our commitment to monitoring and improving our environmental performance.

ISO 14001 is the International Standard for Environmental Management Systems (EMS). It was designed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) to help businesses and other organisations to reduce their environmental impact.

This certification also helps us to:

Identify cost savings – particularly in resource, waste and energy management – which we can then pass on to our customers
Improve efficiency and reduce environmental impact across the product life cycle
Quantify, monitor and control the ongoing environmental impact of our operations, so we can continue to improve our strategy.

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Environmental-protection

Processes

Ensuring efficient use of energy in our buildings and processes is key to improving our level of sustainability and reducing the pollution from our output.

Some examples of how we put this into practice are:

Using high efficiency melting during the casting process, with recuperative gas burners fitted to all furnaces
Installing the latest dust extraction equipment to eliminate dust emissions from our fettling department, as well as oil mist extraction on all CNC machining centres
Returning 100% of the dross from the melting process and swarf from machining to our material suppliers for reprocessing, as well as returning casting trimmings to our in-house melt
Employing recycled secondary aluminium as our raw material
Using fully recyclable packing materials
Ensuring safe handling storage and disposal of hazardous materials.

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Logistics

We minimise the majority of our transport use by containing most processes in-house.

Where we must outsource some operations, we endeavour to use a small network of local sub-contractors and suppliers, as well as carrying out deliveries using our own efficient delivery fleet.

For international deliveries, we aim to bulk freight onto national carriers to maximise efficiency – meanwhile, we always minimise packaging materials as much as possible and offer returnable packaging solutions to UK-based customers.

Our Team

We place high priority on providing a safe and comfortable working environment for our employees, which we are continually reviewing to ensure that we are applying industry best practice.

In doing so, we are able to verify that our eco-conscious endeavours are also mindful of wellbeing in-house.

We do this by:

Using H&S management systems that are certified to ISO 45001:2018
Being members of the SHIFT Initiative (an HSE supported group managed by the Cast Metals Federation, with the objective of reducing accidents in the UK Foundry Industry as a whole)
Providing sufficient resources to enable effective implementation of our policies, including sustainability
Training employees so they understand the environmental impacts and requirements of their activities.

Click here to download our Environmental Policy

The Future

Becoming an eco-conscious manufacturer takes time, work and commitment.

We’re dedicated to improving sustainability at MRT Castings by:

Setting objectives and targets
Reviewing our policy and its effectiveness on an annual basis
Working with employees, customers, suppliers, neighbours and other stakeholders to address any environmental issues affecting the company.

Ready to discuss a casting idea?

MRT Castings are experts with over 75 years’ experience in the manufacture of high-quality aluminium die castings, across a wide range of applications and industries.

Simply get in touch today and we’ll be happy to assist with your next project.

Listen to our dedicated sustainability podcast here.

Have you seen our latest content offer? Download ‘Notes for Designers’ here.