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Sustainability isn’t all about production and distribution

As companies continually look for ways to become greener, MVIS has taken a further step in their approach to sustainability by incorporating a bee house at their HQ in Matlock, Derbyshire.

‘Just’ one bee house (for now) it may be, but with some species under threat in Britain, MVIS are doing their bit to take action for the benefit of everybody, and not just the company.

Bees play a key part in the ability to grow food crops and around a third of bees and hoverflies across the UK are in decline. While some pollination is carried out by honeybees in hives, much of the pollination of food crops and wild plants is carried out by their wild relatives and other insects, especially hoverflies.

“Every square kilometre in the UK has lost an average of 11 species of bee and hoverfly, between 1980 and 2013, according to the new analysis,” said Dr Lynn Dicks of the University of East Anglia.

Matt Shardlow, chief executive of the charity Buglife, said the new paper provides further evidence that our pollinators are in trouble and that the health of our environment and food supply cannot be taken for granted.

“Solitary bees, rare bees and bees and hoverflies that live in the uplands are in particular trouble and need urgent help,”  he said.

Anne Ashman, MVIS General Manager told us:

“We’re always looking internally at ways we can make our operation more sustainable and friendlier on the environment. So, we took a look at things we could do that go beyond just us as a business.

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“Someone in the office made reference to an article they read regarding bees, and their decline in number across the UK as well as the consequences that this could have if it continues. So, we thought – why not? Let’s get a bee house and encourage pollination”

MVIS were awarded with the accreditation of ISO 14001:2015 Environmental in March 2017 ISO 14001 is the international standard that specifies requirements for an effective environmental management system (EMS).

Anne continued:
“Being accredited with ISO14001:2015 for our systems and processes, we feel it’s a company duty to continue to explore ways we can continually work towards being greener and as environmentally friendly as possible.

“We try and buy as much as we can locally for both environmental reasons, as well as keeping the local economy sustainable. We develop solar powered products and are opening a new depot to reduce travel times and carbon footprint.

“We also reuse what we can, wherever we can, and use Beavertails so that we can carry out deliveries of multiple units with one vehicle rather than two- again reducing carbon footprint.”