Corporate Social Responsibility

Materials & Selection

As part of our sustainable approach, Beaufort upholds the principles of responsible and ethical sourcing of materials and we encourage our suppliers to adopt a similar approach. We try to source the majority of extrusions from like minded organisations and from recycled material, thus reducing our impact on the environment and helping to conserve valuable resources. To help minimise our carbon footprint we try to source all extruded products within the United Kingdom and also utilise UK based polyester powder coaters and anodisers.

The Kyoto Agreement has had a direct impact on the construction industry by demanding that buildings become more thermally efficient to save energy and reduce carbon emissions. Longevity, thermal efficiency, sustainability and recycleability are now critical factors in building specifications. Unlike some alternative building materials, aluminium offers a highly sustainable solution with an almost unlimited life expectancy.

It does not age like other organic materials and needs no protection from ultra-violet light. Its overall lifecycle is more environmentally friendly due to the minimum energy required in maintenance, and the well-established proven design life of aluminium ensures that this material will provide a long-term solution year on year with the guarantee of 100% recyclability at the end of a building’s life.

Key Facts:

• Since 1888 over 700 million tonnes of aluminium have been produced.
• Over three quarters of the aluminium is still in productive use.
• 90% of the aluminium used in the construction industry is recycled.
• Recycling the aluminium currently stored would equal 15 years’ primary output.
• Recycling aluminium requires 95% less energy than primary production.
• Recycling aluminium from end-of-life products saves close to 80 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year.
• Since the inception of aluminium recycling, we have avoided over one billion tonnes of CO2 emissions.