Environment

Bentley has been at the forefront of reducing the environmental impact of our site for over 20 years. In October 2019, our focus on energy and environmental management helped to secure us the key landmark of becoming certified to PAS 2060 carbon neutral standard by the Carbon Trust.

With a 70 year old site this has not been an overnight achievement. In 1999 Bentley became the first automotive site certified to ISO 14001 environmental management standard and in 2011 the Pyms Lane site was the first automotive site to achieve the ISO 50001 energy management standard.

Capturing natural carbon free energy was the next logical step and in 2013 over 20,000 solar panels were installed on the roof of the factory - at the time, this was the largest roof mounted solar array in the UK. In 2019, a further 10,000 panels were installed through the creation of a solar car port, taking the total onsite site capacity to 7.7MW – enough to cover over 1,750 homes.

This forward-thinking approach has been applied to all other aspects of site sustainability. By applying lean manufacturing principles to Bentley’s site sustainability strategy, waste has been successfully reduced in all areas – and over 1,250 of our manufacturing colleagues have been trained resulting in 20 per cent efficiency across all operations.

This has helped to drive significant progress in environmental performance. Between 2010 and 2019, energy consumption has been reduced by 54 per cent per car, CO2 emissions decreased by 84 per cent, waste water by 99 per cent and VOC emissions by 36 per cent - all whilst increasing production by 156 per cent!

By 2025 the business aims to achieve a total production environmental impact reduction of 75 per cent against 2010.

Looking ahead, the site aims to become plastic neutral by the end of 2025, while in parallel becoming a role model for biodiversity. This is an area where colleague engagement and grass roots ideas have been key. Since 2019, successful projects included tree-planting, water capture and initiatives such as the installation five bee hives which are now home to 300,000 Bentley bees.

Looking ahead, we are committed to going beyond the 2 degree target of the Paris Climate Agreement, with the long-term vision for the site in Crewe to become a climate positive factory.