GREEN MATTERS
CDL’s pioneering journey in environmental stewardship
Cool Designs (CDL) has long been a pioneer in environmental stewardship, becoming the fi rst UK air conditioning distributor to be certifi ed carbon neutral in 2011. This was some years before it became fashionable to support the green agenda, and ahead of the major manufacturers adopting net zero targets.
“T
hroughout our development as a company, a guiding light has been to grow responsibly”, says Darrel Birkett,
CDL founder and managing director. “We have expanded dramatically over 20 years, but it was never ‘growth at all costs’. At each step, we have taken time to consider how our actions impacted the local area and wider environment, and the opportunities and costs for everyone involved.” Critically, this includes the impact of the business on the environment. Before legislation was introduced, CDL was the fi rst distributor to put measures in place to prevent sales of air conditioning to companies not qualifi ed to handle refrigerants. Achieving carbon neutral status was a natural extension of this underlying philosophy.
24 July 2023 •
www.acr-news.com When the company began the journey to net
zero, the political and environmental landscape was very diff erent to today. “Few people at that time realised what a transformational eff ect climate change would have on life and business. The whole issue of global warming was only just breaking surface. There were no national targets for net zero, and Greta Thunberg was just an unknown pupil in primary school.” As a then relatively small air conditioning
supplier, what was it that kickstarted the ambition to become carbon neutral, long before big manufacturers woke up? “Even back then we were pushing energy effi ciency and making recommendations to customers on projects, while actually overlooking our own business. It
didn’t make sense and didn’t sit well. We decided to do the right thing, and take action to pin our colours to the mast. We took a leadership position because we came to believe it was one of the most important issues facing the industry and society.” The fi rst step was to buy some grazing land in
Cheshire and plant 100 trees – one a Royal Oak – to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. As the plan took shape, the company set the net zero journey on a formal footing by signing up with the Carbon Neutral company. CarbonNeutral is a global standard awarded to businesses that have reduced their greenhouse gas emissions to net zero. This is usually achieved through a combination of reducing
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