Act Now on Climate Change
Rising temperatures are causing an environmental crisis affecting all societies at a scale never seen before. Droughts are becoming a common occurrence during Europe’s summers, threatening the region’s agriculture and livelihoods. Hurricanes, or typhoons, have become stronger since 1975, costing many lives and ruining local economies. Floods, droughts and rising sea levels are forcing families to uproot themselves and seek refuge. The UN is predicting up to one billion people becoming environmental migrants by 2050.
Scientists have been warning for decades that climate change is driven by humanity. Burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat and transportation, large-scale unsustainable agriculture, and mismanagement or depletion of forests are contributing to the increasing release of greenhouse gases. Some changes are already irreversible, and scientists are urging us now to prevent the worst effects. If we reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, we would have a reasonable chance to limit the rise of temperatures to 1.5C and lessen the severity of the damage. Their message is clear: we must act now.
Sustainability is at the heart of RDM
Resource Data Management (RDM) was founded on the principle of sustainability. Minimal use of resources and maximum efficiency in all aspects of the business is what drives our operating practices and product development. We want to contribute with everything in our power to slow climate change.
Efficient Business Practices
Saving energy is key to our sustainability concept. Over the years, we have implemented energy-saving measures at our offices, including free air cooling for the IT and data suite, LED lighting, newly insulated roofs and occupancy detectors. In 2008, we were the first company in Glasgow to install two 15kw wind turbines.
Looking to curb our CO2 emissions further, in 2017 we started the switch to electric company cars. From 2020 onwards, all new company cars will be fully electric.
We also integrated our environmental standards into our manufacturing processes. To ensure we impact the planet’s health as little as possible, we ethically source components and recycle the water used to flush away flux from PCBs. When it comes to packaging for our products, we use recycled card and paper instead of polystyrene foam and plastic.
Our Solutions
Our products are developed to help our customers save resources and reduce their carbon footprint. Remote monitoring software ActiveFM™ allows customers to identify equipment issues before problems arise. Most of these conditions can be dealt with automatically and remotely by our advanced triaging patented algorithm, reducing the critical situations that require a service engineer to go on site. Combined, this reduces site visits and greenhouse gas emissions due to travelling. In 2019, 2.22 million incidents were handled remotely for long-term customer Marks & Spencer, saving site visits and staff hours.
System head-end DMTouch controls heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration (HVACR) and lighting devices but not exclusively. It also monitors energy usage of metered consumables, displays statistics and trends for users to optimise their control strategies and usage. Programmable logic control (PLC) software, TDB, enables users to create and set up efficient building management systems.
A variety of projects that utilised RDM solutions have resulted in improved efficiency. From reducing refrigerant charge by 90%, reducing daily water consumption by 45%, to achieving 51% energy savings, our solutions have benefitted many industries. Most importantly, they contribute towards reaching the net-zero target.
Our Promise
We promise to continually review our business practices to identify areas for improvement as new technologies become available. We also promise to keep sustainability at the heart of our product development to ensure we help other businesses reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Our manufacturing processes will stay as environmentally friendly as possible and we will incorporate newly developed methods or guidelines that help us protect the planet.
Additional Information
In 2022, humanity had used up all resources Earth can regenerate in the year on 28th July. Find out more about Earth Overshoot day here.
More scientific information about climate change, its causes, effects and solutions are available here.
RDM solutions have been used for more than 20 years in projects that lower greenhouse gas emissions. Read more about some of the projects here.