Sinclair Group’s Sustainability Journey

Richard Seaward, Head of Strategic Development, Sinclair Group

Founded in 1945, Sinclair Group is now Wales’s largest automotive retail group, growing from a small garage in Port Talbot to a multi-franchise retailer that counts leading brands such as Volkswagen Group, BYD, Hyundai and more among its retailer partners.

But in recent years, Sinclair Group has emerged as a leading champion in our industry when it comes to sustainability, with the group pioneering many initiatives that have seen it drastically reduce its environmental impact, whilst also generating massive savings.

To find out more about their sustainability journey, and how other retailers can successfully implement their own sustainability programme, we caught up with Sinclair Group’s Head of Strategic Development Richard Seaward.

Cutting carbon and costs

Richard explained that Sinclair’s sustainability drive came about from a strong sense of purpose, specifically enhancing their local community which has come to also mean the local environment.

Sustainability was therefore put at the core of their commercial decision making and it took just a matter of days for it to bear fruit, with Richard explaining that a simple project to review water usage resulted in an annual saving of £20k whilst also drastically cutting down their water usage. This suggested that, rather than simply being the right thing, such sustainable actions could be a win for both the environment and the business.

Since then, Sinclair Group has taken major steps to become a truly sustainable business. They have a team of employee Eco Champions who have volunteered to take on additional duties and be the ‘eyes, ears and conscience’ of the business, with this team now led by a Group Environmental Manager.

These Eco Champions, along with the Group’s Board members, are all Carbon Literacy Accredited with the business aiming to have 50% of its staff to become accredited by 2026.

Having a passionate team behind their sustainability goals has enabled Sinclair to implement new sustainable practises across its business:

Recycling

An all-new recycling scheme has reduced the group’s waste by 65% and, as a result of reducing the need for waste removal, has saved the business a staggering circa £100k each year.

Waste oil

They have also switched their waste oil supplier, with old engine oil now sent to be re-refined as base oil which is then used to produce new engine oil rather than simply sending the old oil to be burnt in other industries. Richard estimates this has cut their wider carbon emissions by around 150 tonnes.

Solar panels

Sinclair’s carbon emissions have been further reduced by the installation of solar panels at ten of their sites, which will save 2,500 tonnes of carbon over the 25-year lifespan of the systems.

Paperless

But even small changes can yield great results. By going fully digital in sales and aftersales, the group has saved a million sheets of paper per year.

Cleaning supplies

And a simple switch to organic cleaning products along with the recycling scheme has yielded a £60k saving per year.

So even simple changes can add up to a massive cost saving.

The next steps on the sustainability journey

Sinclair’s sustainability journey is far from over with Richard revealing a suite of new initiatives that are just beginning. They have signed off a project to add additional solar panels to their sites, with the project set to save between 7,500 and 10,000 tonnes of carbon over the projects’ lifetime, with the project set to pay for itself in just five years.

The group aims to move to full green energy by 2030 and are currently working to measure electricity and gas consumption at individual sites to track where improvements in consumption can be made.

All new starters at Sinclair will be introduced to carbon literacy as part of their induction. Richard highlights that the group is in the process of developing a ‘lite’ version of the Carbon Literacy training so that they can be confident that all their new people have had the sustainability injection.

Finally, the group is focused on expanding its portfolio of manufacturer partners to include those that offer affordable electric mobility. Their aim is to be able to provide electric vehicles across a wide range of price points, crucial in an area like South Wales, which has traditionally been one of the worst areas for average salaries (and therefore affordability) in the UK.

The takeaways for retailers

“There is gold in the green!”

Richard is keen to stress that sustainability offers a huge opportunity for retailers to make significant savings that really don’t impact the day to day running of the business. These initiatives often solve costly inefficiencies.

He stresses that there are so many ideas and avenues for support out there. Engaging with partners and peers to hear how they engage with sustainability can offer up some new ideas and often open new doors to sustainable cost savings.

But he offers a word of warning. You shouldn’t expect everyone to care like you do, you need to be relentless and not get discouraged if you can’t get instant buy in for new initiatives. It helps being able to always think back to why you’re doing this and remember that you are doing the right thing.

“Making sure it is embedded in the Business Purpose will provide that North star and also allow you to answer those difficult operational questions.”

“This illustrates how our Purpose of “Belong, for Good”, reaches out to try and deliver better communities and environments and how it talks to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (the square boxes around the outside). I will be taking this on the road and delivering the details behind this via a series of workshops to as many staff as I can reach. Hopefully I can create a few more converts!” Richard Seaward, Head of Strategic Development, Sinclair Group