Sustainability
We are using our unique set of skills and values to rise to the global climate change challenge.
Reducing our deployable infrastructure carbon footprint
Working with Vendigital, Marshall has identified a number of opportunities to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of its deployable operational infrastructure products in an effort to achieve net zero by 2030.
The Challenge
Marshall has established a target to achieve net zero by 2030. This gave Marshall the need to set some shorter-term goals, with the purpose of road-mapping a path to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of our deployable operational infrastructure products in the next 12 months.
However, without a benchmark for current CO2e, it was difficult to see where these reductions could be made.
Our Solution
The first step to tackling carbon emissions was to understand the current carbon footprint of our deployable operational infrastructure product.
The team at Vendigital focused on calculating Scope 3 emissions for our most standardised product, taking account of a range of variables including the extraction of the raw materials, the production of parts, and the emissions generated by suppliers and transportation. The research also conducted in-depth reviews of engineering processes, supply chain, build materials and CAD models to create a holistic picture of carbon emissions on a part-by-part basis.
From this analysis, Vendigital created a carbon baseline dashboard which displayed the data using a number of bespoke metrics, such as carbon intensity by material. This allowed us to examine and impact the design for the future ensuring that the embedded carbon were factored into all engineering, manufacturing and supply-chain chain decisions.
The increased data visibility meant it was possible to rapidly identify areas where there was scope to reduce carbon emissions, find solutions such as changes to materials and track progress against targets.
Outcome
- Each product unit contains 19 tonnes of embedded carbon. Through a number of identified opportunities, we have been able to roadmap a path to reduce the carbon per unit by 10,000kg of CO2e
- Designing out carbon intensive materials and production methods will reduce the embedded carbon by 14%
- Assessing our global manufacturing footprint highlighted that the decision to start operating in Canada will provide the opportunity to reduce our product’s embedded carbon by over 50%
- We also gained insight into potential investment strategies by identifying opportunities to remove carbon intensive equipment at our new facility within the UK
- Product engineering “rules” were designed and implemented to ensure the carbon footprint of raw materials is considered when designing a product. For example, changing from aluminium to steel where possible delivered a carbon emissions reduction of 1,000kg
- The creation of bespoke dashboards will help us identify the largest areas of carbon contribution within products on a long-term basis
“Marshall are committed to building extraordinary futures for our customers, our communities, our people and our planet. We outlined this with our pledge to be carbon net zero by 2030. At Marshall Land Systems, we wanted to accelerate our progress towards our net zero target with industry standard and recognised methods for carbon profiling. The comprehensive data and depth of analysis provided by Vendigital has given us the tools to analyse and baseline our embedded product carbon, which is critical to helping us make the changes necessary to meet our challenging target.”
Ollie Raymond
Head of Standard Products, Marshall
