Pico Technology has long tried to be environmentally friendly, but with the more recent IPCC and UN reports it became obvious that much more needed to be done. Taking the science, the threat of climate change and environmental biodiversity loss into account, we feel that it is more important than ever to act.
With this in mind, we created an internal group called PicoPlanet.
In November 2021, Pico had 216 solar panels installed. Capturing energy from our sun the solar panels provide us with clean, green energy to power our head office in St Neots, Cambridgeshire. Below, you can see the environmental benefits our solar panels have had so far, and these numbers will continue to grow.
During lockdown, Pico took the opportunity to refurbish our head office in St Neots. As part of this project, the PicoPlanet team was involved to give guidance on various energy efficient investments, one of which was on the subject of insulation. We’re pleased to report that 150 mm of cavity wall insulation has been fitted throughout the refurbishment, offering enhanced thermal performance.
Pico currently has four EV chargers installed, with more to come. These chargers are available for staff to use as electric vehicles become more and more popular.
Several of our meeting rooms and cloakrooms now have motion sensors installed for lighting control. This ensures lights are not left on, further helping to save energy.
We made the switch to plastic-free tape enabling all our packaging to be fully recycled and compostable.
Throughout the office areas, Pico has placed mixed recycling bins, allowing for the separation of general waste, paper, and other recyclable materials.
In January of 2020, Pico purchased a crimping machine to enable us to recycle cardboard packaging from suppliers. We use this as an alternative to bubble wrap when sending our goods on to customers and distributors.
We carefully consider our printing needs, questioning whether digital copies could be used instead.
Anything that must be printed is then done so on Carbon Captured paper, with carefully considered volumes in order to reduce waste.
Click to learn about Carbon CaptureTo help reduce our printing even further, we converted our popular automotive help guide to a handy mobile app. This full-colour, printed guide was previously supplied with every automotive kit sold.
Click to learn about our Automotive appOn every desk in the Pico offices we have power bars. All PC and desk equipment is connected to these bars, which are themselves then turned off at the end of the working day. This saves long periods of standby for hundreds of screens, laptop docks and power supplies.
Throughout the head office in St Neots, LED lights have replaced hundreds of fluorescent tubes that were once in place. With lights being on throughout the working day this offered a significant reduction in energy use.
At Christmas time, we made the decision to plant trees with the Woodland’s Trust, in-lieu of sending out cards or gifts to our distributors and suppliers.
Click to learn about Woodland TrustPicoPlanet base numbers have been calculated over the last 3 years, as we come to grips with the carbon impacts of our company. Starting in 2022 we will be updating our measures against our base numbers and thus documenting our journey towards our targets.
All measurements are in CO2 tonnes.
85t
TBC
49t
TBC
1t
TBC
559t
TBC
136t
TBC
194t
TBC
240t
TBC
Current targets:
Reducing our carbon outputs by 35% from our base numbers by the end of 2023.
In addition to this, we're offsetting our carbon footprint from 2022 to further reduce our environmental impact.