Environmental Objective

Phytovation’s aim is to be carbon neutral not later than 2040, 10 years ahead of the UK objectives set out in the UK Climate Change Act.

What have we done so far

• Installation of solar panels ​

We installed solar panels on the roof of our production unit in 2021 which have been generating nearly 60% of the electricity we use in the production of senna. This has greatly reduced the carbon footprint of the production process itself but it is important to realise that this is only part of the overall green house gas produced over the entire supply chain.

• Life Cycle Analysis

​To look at the supply of senna holistically we worked with Bangor University in 2022 to undertake a Life Cycle Analysis for Senna up to the point that the product leaves the Phytovation factory gate - a cradle-to-gate analysis in the jargon of the industry. This aimed to assess all the emissions generated by the entire supply chain going right back to the growers in India and Sudan.

This showed that there was relatively little difference in the GHG emissions between the two but the largest contribution in each case was accounted for by Road transportation with the Sea Freight much less significant and all other contributions minor in comparison.

Much of this is not under our control but we are trying to use rail transportation from the docks in the UK to the nearest rail depot to our site as a result of this finding.

Overall the carbon footprint of our end product was 0.90Kg CO2e per Kg which to put it in perspective is less than the carbon footprint for milk produced in the UK which is between 1.0 and 1.1Kg of CO2 per litre. The researcher who conducted the study described it as “not a large footprint” but we are certainly not taking this as a reason for complacency or inaction.

The report is helping to inform our future plans.

• Installation of charging point

We have installed a charging point on our site to encourage the use of electric vehicles and around 20% of staff travel is now by EV.

• Good housekeeping

We have an ongoing internal process to improve efficiency through replacement of lighting, introduction of better controls and replacement of inefficient equipment and all the plant based waste from our production process is sent for anaerobic digestion and so contributes to the production of low carbon energy.