Strident Group champion their carbon reduction with help from Green Light Trust

Strident Group is a leading-edge organisation that raises business performance through information technology. Sustainability is a key point on their agenda and as part of their green initiative they joined Low Carbon Champions, a project lead by Green Light Trust.

The project will support seventy-five small and medium sized businesses in Suffolk through developing ‘Low Carbon Champions’, individuals who will design and implement carbon reduction programmes within their organisation. Participating businesses will also receive a free carbon audit and will be able to apply for a grant up to £5,000. Their efforts will be certified by the ANSWER carbon charter mark. To find out more, click here.

Lucinda Sharp, Group Operations Manager, will become the Low Carbon Champion for Strident. She said: ‘We cannot ignore our impact on the environment and energy improvements not only make environmental but business sense too with the inevitable increases in energy prices in the decades to come”.

Chairman Richard Parker listed their existing green initiatives. “As a Group we have actively supported the major project of insulation, ventilation, shading and other initiatives to move our office premises from a G to B energy rating.  We are also calculating how much solar and wind power we can generate to see what we can further save on our bills and carbon footprint. Lastly we have changed all company vehicles to low emission variants including my own move from Mercedes to Mini!” 

“Despite our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, we will never be able to remove our energy use completely.  We calculated that Strident and our Claydon Court HQ used around sixty tonnes of carbon last year. We have offset this by planting sixty trees with Green Light Trust, which, over the course of their lifetime, will absorb the same amount of carbon.”

Strident is embarking on the Low Carbon Champion initiative to provide the expertise and peer support needed to make an even greater impact on their green agenda.  “Not only will our Group benefit but we will champion similar improvements through colleagues, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders’” concluded Lucinda.

Low Carbon Champions is delivered by Green Light Trust and Suffolk County Council with support from Suffolk Chamber of Commerce, Choose Suffolk and Suffolk Climate Change Partnership. The project is part-funded from the European Regional Development Fund.

Image: Insulation work at Claydon Court, Strident’s head office.