Maritime & Marine
Leanna Lakes, Operations Director, Lee Howes, Sustainability Officer, and Jonathan Stage, Head of Safety and Compliance, all of Red Funnel.
Published: June 16, 2023 | Updated: 15th June 2023
With the world facing a climate emergency, businesses are increasingly conscious about their effect on the environment.
At Isle of Wight ferry company Red Funnel, Sustainability Officer Lee Howes is tasked with charting the firm’s course to net zero.
Since joining the cross-Solent operator last year, Lee has developed its Environmental, Social and Governance Strategy, Changing Tides, which aims to ensure Red Funnel makes the right choices to minimise its impact on the environment, maximise the support given to the Island community and operate responsibly all while continuing to deliver its lifeline service the Island.
To accomplish this, Lee’s strategy focuses on five key pillars: people, communities, customers, environment, and the future.
Lee explained: “We want Red Funnel to be a great place to work and to provide a great service for our customers, while also being beneficial for both the Isle of Wight and wider Hampshire community.
“We also want to be a force for good when it comes to our impact on the local ecological environment.”
Developing Changing Tides
To develop the Changing Tides strategy, Lee spent time on the ferries listening to Red Funnel’s staff.
“One element that struck me most when speaking with our colleagues is how much they wanted to play a part in our ESG future, offering me their thoughts and ideas.
“They are the experts on what they do, and I want to harness their knowledge and enthusiasm while also helping to give them a voice.”
One thing he cautions against is simply throwing money at the problem.
“Whilst some things will produce instant results, some will be incremental over a longer period of time.
“Where we are focused at the moment is having quantifiable data which allows us to track our progress and enables us to implement our new ESG processes in a more streamlined way.
“We are starting by putting together a full environmental snapshot of the organisation which will cover everything from the amount of fuel burned, to how many people we employ to how many local events we support.
“We can then track progress and what the anticipated outcomes are. Having something that backs up our words is what sets Changing Tides apart. I’m committed to reporting this process transparently because that’s what people want and deserve.”
Beach clean
Changing Tides is more than just numbers on a spreadsheet, however.
On Earth Day, Red Funnel colleagues took part in a beach clean at Binnel Bay in St Lawrence alongside volunteers from Planet Aware, the Island’s environmental community group.
The volunteers collected 67kg of rubbish including scores of plastic bottle caps, food wrappers, fishing tackle line and ropes, disposable face covers, tyres, kids’ toys, shoes and even shotgun shells.
Discussing this, Lee said: “We’re committed to finding innovative ways to reduce and mitigate all aspects of our environmental impact, and to protect the environment and biodiversity within the places we operate and our beach clean earlier this year was a great way to demonstrate this.
“It also started the important process of engaging our people and raising internal awareness of where we’re going.
“The team thoroughly enjoyed taking part, and it’s something we’re excited to take even further.
“We’re busy putting plans in place to pledge more colleagues to support Planet Aware with their upcoming beach cleans, and just recently, also completed our first beach survey with Planet Aware over at Cowes Beach.”
Reducing waste
Removing and reducing as much waste as possible is another aspect of Changing Tides, going beyond cleaning beaches.
“We have developed and implemented a waste management plan and it’s not just about bins, incorporating engineering works and other projects.
“Instead of sending untreated waste to landfill it’s used for energy recovery.
“There is also an educational element for our customers which aims to make it easer to reduce waste where possible, and we’re also utilising things like the Too Good To Go app to help us cut down on food waste.”
Community projects
Lee is also keen to point out that the environment is only one aspect of ESG, explaining: “It’s also about social issues alongside national and local governance.”
Within the social aspect, the firm recently launched its Island Ambassador programme, a travel sponsorship programme to champion talent from the Isle of Wight.
Additionally, to celebrate its 160th year of providing a lifeline service Red Funnel gifted 160 trees to 11 Island businesses, charities, and community groups.
Red Funnel also offers its customers the opportunity to support local Island businesses while travelling.
“One of the most pleasing things I’ve seen whilst spending time around the terminals and on our ferries, is all the local brands available on board.
“From freshly ground coffee from the Island Tea & Coffee Company to fresh milk from Briddlesford Farm Dairy and Mermaid Gin from the Isle of Wight Distillery.
“The shorter the supply chain, the more added value, and economic support is directly supplied into the local community.
“In the current times, where a lot of businesses are feeling the pinch of a myriad of factors, we have a responsibility to support local businesses across the Isle of Wight and the wider Hampshire region.”
Supporting educational programmes
Another element of the Social aspect of the strategy is engaging with local educational institutions.
“Being an island, the economy needs us to work with schools and colleges and provide apprenticeships and cadetships – which also helps to showcase the wide variety of career opportunities available within our sector.
“Recently our HR team helped out with a series of mock interviews for college students, providing feedback to help equip the students to enter the world of work.“
In January this year Trinity House joined Red Funnel to create a new joint venture as part of the Merchant Navy Scholarship Scheme.
The three-year cadetship will allow successful candidates to follow Deck and Marine Engineer training pathways to qualify as Officers of the Watch, with the added possibility of employment with Red Funnel as their careers progress.
