THE COOL CLUB
As we embark on an exciting new era of our environmental journey at The Ice Co with the launch of our Sustainability Strategy 2026, it’s the perfect time to look back at everything that’s brought us here so far! It’s been almost 10 years since our journey started with the installation of our wind turbine, which is still used to help power our South Kirkby site today, and we wanted to take this opportunity to catch you up on all the other sustainable changes we’ve made since then.
2016 – The year of solar
A year after our wind turbine was installed on-site, we also made the decision to go solar! In 2016 nearly 2,000 solar panels were installed on the roof of our South Kirkby premises, marking over £400,000 of investment made to date, in making The Ice Co a more sustainable place. This year we also began to encourage change within our office spaces by installing motion sensor lighting throughout and introducing a ban on pointless printing.
2018 – There’s no I in team
2018 saw lots of changes at The Ice Co to help in doing our bit for the planet, starting with the birth of The Ice Co Sustainability Team! We recruited employees from all levels of the business, from directors to marketing and operations, meeting quarterly to progress our ever-evolving 3-year plan. During their first year, our sustainability team helped to get single-use plastics banned on site as well as making the choice to only source marketing materials from local suppliers going forward. 2018 also saw the 1st hybrid vehicle introduced to the company fleet and to top it off we even reduced the plastic in our packaging by 10%!
2020 – The year the world stopped
In a year when we all learnt that nothing is ever guaranteed, looking after our team and our planet never felt more important. Whilst the world stood still, we introduced flexible working initially to support our colleagues throughout the pandemic and since then it has stuck – with all our office staff now offered hybrid working as standard. In 2020 we reduced plastic in our packaging again by a further 10%, as well beginning paper bag trials for our ice cubes in an industry first.
2021 – 100% renewable energy!
2021 was a big year in our sustainability journey, with all products made from 100% renewable energy. Alongside this massive milestone, we also introduced energy logos on the packs of our 4 core products and reduced the plastic in our packaging by 10% again for the 3rd year in a row! This year our paper bag trials were also successfully completed to offer a 100% recyclable paper ice product as well as installing the first EV charging points at our South Kirkby site.
2022 – Hello Glastonbury
Just as the world started to truly feel normal again, our Super Cubes and Spring Water 2kg were sold in paper bags for the very first time at the illustrious Glastonbury Festival! In 2022 we also trained our first four team members as Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAs), switched to using sustainable partners for all office consumables and by the end of the year, 40% of company cars were fully electric.
2023 – It’s all about the training
In 2023, we knew in order to reach our sustainable goals we needed everyone’s input from all areas of the business and from there on, all staff at The Ice Co were given environmental training. To continue to support our colleagues we trained another five members of our team as MHFA’s and opened our wellness room at South Kirkby, available to staff 24/7 for advice and assistance if they’re struggling. This year we also introduced additional EV charging points, made investments into energy-saving Super Cubes machinery and completed the transition to a 100% electric/hybrid company fleet.
2024 – The start of something new
Here we are in 2024, almost a decade into this journey and showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. We’ve achieved so much this year already; installing even more EV charging points, beginning the auditing process for ISO14001 and even adding seven more Mental Health First Aider’s to the team (that’s 16 MHFA’s now at The Ice Co!) and it’s only March!
With the launch of our Sustainability Strategy 2026 this month, our biggest project begins in working towards achieving net zero by 2050. If you’d like to find out more about how we plan on getting there, head over to our brand-new Sustainability page to learn what we have in store for the next 3 years at The Ice Co.
