Companies are increasingly having to do their bit for the environment – but BTS Facades & Fabrications continues to do more than most.
For the second year running, the façade and rainscreen product firm has bagged the Make Your Mark Environment award – testament to its ongoing determination to move towards net zero.
As part of its journey, the £10.4m turnover company, which began in a rented unit in Spennymoor before moving to its state-of-the-art facility on Aycliffe Business Park, has introduced a major carbon reduction programme.
Measures so far have included a zero-waste-to-landfill policy, a biomass boiler, two electric company cars, salary sacrifice schemes for electric vehicles and cycles, energy-efficient lighting and a fleet of three lithium-powered electric fork trucks.
All the firm’s waste is bailed and sold on, while a new energy contract has recently been signed, ensuring electricity supply is only from renewable sources.
And yet despite all that, the company feels there’s still more to do.
Finance director Marcia Atkinson – pictured (left) receiving the award from Carol Jordan of category sponsor Ebac – said: “We’re all striving to get to that net zero and improve every aspect of the company.
“We aren’t going to be net zero for 2025 now, which is what we hoped to be, because with the current economic climate, we’ve had to invest more within the company.
“But we are still looking at it and every month, we still have targets we’ve got to hit. So while we’re not as far on as we wanted to be, we’re still striving for it.”
Saying she was “absolutely stunned” to be picking up the award for the second year in a row, Marcia added: “ We’re working very hard, from the bottom tier to the top – we’re always striving to improve what we’re doing and everything towards the environment.
“When we got our carbon certificates, it was a hard slog to get there from being in manufacturing because it can be a dirty industry.
“We were getting led down garden paths and not getting anywhere so we had to learn what we were doing at each stage – the three tiers of what you had to do to get through to become net zero – it was very difficult, but it will always be part of what we do.
“From the very beginning, we’ve been very invested in protecting the environment for our younger generation – for their sakes, we’ve all got to act now.”
BTS edged Husqvarna UK and Newton Press to the Environment Award, which was one of 11 trophies handed out at the 2025 Make Your Mark Awards, in association with Senstronics.