ENVIRONMENTAL & SUSTAINABILITY POLICY
INTRODUCTION
Trading since 1921, Witham Group is a leading independent manufacturer of lubricants and supplier of paint and coatings throughout the UK. It is a privately owned, family run business with its head office and lubricant manufacturing site based in Lincoln and a distribution centre, trade shop and decorating centre based in Soham.
Over the past century, we are proud to have built a rich heritage and a strong reputation based on quality, while looking after our customers, our people and the environment.
Despite the wide range of products we manufacture and supply, our aim is always to operate within a climate of excellence, not only in terms of the service and procedures we provide to our customers, but also through our manufacturing processes and our commitment to the welfare, health and safety of all of our employees and those people affected by our activities. We are committed to operate with sound corporate care and social responsibility.
In an industry where traditionally additives, chemicals and fossil-based products are essential to the manufacturing process, we have challenged ourselves to ensure that, wherever possible, the environment is at the heart of our activities. We are working extremely hard to create a “greener” culture within our business. This policy includes a summary of what we have achieved and the improvements we continue to make across the board.
In order to achieve this, the business recognises that promoting sustainability, protecting the environment and preventing pollution, are of the utmost importance, not only for the here and now but for the future of everyone. Several years ago, Witham Group challenged itself to review our industry’s traditional practices and develop innovative changes that are making a real difference.
This policy, with its goals, aims and objectives, has been established to reflect our determination to ensure that, wherever practically possible, our activities including purchasing, manufacturing, distribution, energy use, waste generation and disposal, will minimise the effect on the environment. At all levels, and within all functions of the Group, we are committed to continual improvement of our management systems and enhancement of our environmental performance.
Reviewed regularly and discussed at Board level throughout the business, we strive to continually improve all areas of our activities and the impact we have on the environment. We will always comply with relevant environmental legislation and industry codes of practice as well as any other compliance obligations, as a minimum level of performance.
Nigel Bottom - Managing Director
July
2026
INDUSTRY ACCREDITATIONS & AWARDS
Witham are proud to be accredited with both the British Standards EN ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. The IS0 14001 certification is an endorsement of the quality of our environmental practices and procedures and confirms our ongoing commitment to putting the environment at the heart of the business.
We are also proud that our product development has gained recognition with environmental awards over the past decade, and we are also members of the Green Tractor Scheme which is aimed at combating agricultural plastic waste.
One of our most prestigious accolades is to have been awarded a Royal Warrant for the products and services we supply to the Royal Estates. We are extremely proud to have held a Royal Warrant since 1991 and were delighted to have been appointed the new monarch’s Royal Coat of Arms by HM King Charles III in December 2024. The Royal Warrant means that Witham Group meets the high standards of quality and responsible business practices including the drive to reduce environmental impact.
OUR CORE VALUES
Everything we do is underpinned by the five principles of our business or Core Values - we call these values The Witham Way. In practice, each Core Value relates to how we operate. Our Core Values are at the heart of our family business and how we treat the people we have within our team, customers, supply chain and all those around us.
These values are not just good business practice, they are the cornerstones of pride on which our business has been built and grown over the past 100 years. They will be the bedrock of what we continue to do long into the future.
Sustainability and the environment is very much at the heart of our business. For full details of all our Core Values please visit our website.
By Appointment to His Majesty the King Lubricant Blenders & Paint Suppliers Witham Group T/A Witham Oil & Paint Ltd, Lincoln FM37897
REVIEW OF 2025 ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES
Last year our business focused on energy savings and packaging waste, measuring water usage and improving the recycling elements of our processes. In addition, we set ourselves the goal of measuring the carbon footprints of all our manufactured products, as well as a new supply chain analysis, which aimed to collate and grade information about our own suppliers.
Achievements and improvements in 2025 are as follows :
1. CARDBOARD PACKAGING - now 87% recycled content with 13% coming from sustainably managed sources.
2. NEW BARN PAINT CONTAINERS - now made from 100% recycled materials.
3. FLEET OF COMPANY CARS – now switched to hybrid or full electric.
4. COMMERCIAL VEHICLE FLEET - using HVO fuels.
5. OUR NEW REUSABLE PALLET WRAPS - save 1.5kg of single use plastic wrap on every pallet we can using the Palband system. So far this year we have therefore saved over 234kg of single use plastic being used. Based on general industry metrics, reducing this amount of plastic has resulted in approximately 587kg of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) emissions being saved. This is also the same as 11,750 plastic bottles being saved.
6. OUR WATER USAGE - now monitored on a Power BI dashboard and savings on our rainwater harvesting shows we have collected in the past 5 months alone over 19,000 litres of rainwater to use effectively for cleaning vehicles etc.
7. INK, PRINT CARTRIDGES AND LABEL USE REDUCTION Over the past year we have used over 500 less ink cartridges for our label printing. This has come about from the redesign of the back labels of our own Qualube range of products as well as those of our own label customers. We changed the designs on the back to use much less dark coloured ink, which would have no bearing on the quality of the labels, but this small change has enabled each ink cartridge to now produce 284 labels instead of just 163 which is a saving we are very pleased with
OUR AIMS & OBJECTIVES FOR 2026
Here are our Specific Environmental and Sustainable objectives for the year ahead.
"In addition to our operational goals and commitments to the environment, our vision this year is to create ways to help a thriving natural world, with support for wildlife and habitats to help address the climate and ecological emergencies. We hope our involvement with local businesses and organisations will not only go a small way in helping support offsite schemes and initiatives but also inspire and empower others to take action for nature too."
Nigel R Bottom - Group Managing Director.
1. PRODUCT CARBON FOOTPRINT MEASURING - We continue to work towards measuring our Product Carbon Footprint (PCF), on the thousands of products we make each year. This will allow us to better understand and manage the environmental impact of our products across their lifecycle. This includes measuring emissions associated with raw materials, manufacturing and blending, energy and utilities.
Collecting this data supports informed decision-making, helps identify opportunities to reduce emissions and improve efficiency, and ensures alignment with customer expectations and emerging regulatory requirements. By measuring PCF, we are taking a proactive step towards greater transparency, continuous improvement, and our wider sustainability objectives. This is a huge project for us and we will continue to work on this for the remainder of 2026.
2. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT - We now have a process in place and are contacting all our suppliers this year, asking them to complete a questionnaire about their Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance. This information, as it is received, is being collated so that all our suppliers are rated on a traffic light system to ensure we are dealing only with companies that have good ethics and values themselves in the way they operate. This work is not yet completed but will remain an objective for the year ahead to finish in 2026.
3. CREATE NEW OFFSITE NATURE RECOVERY INITIATIVES - By working with customers and environmental or wildlife organisations such as the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust we are launching new collaborations and support new initiatives that help improve biodiversity and ecological restoration in various areas of our trading locations. For example, with Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust we are supporting one of their new Conservation Projects in Hawthorpe, South Lincolnshire, where old intensively farmed arable land, which has been taken out of production decades ago, is being returned to a natural landscape, where wildflower rich grasslands and new species are able to thrive, river habitats re-linked and wildlife can naturally recover and prosper. We have also started working with a farming customer in South Lincolnshire, supporting their beehive project and more diverse land management goals. There may even be some Witham Honey as a lovely outcome.
4. SUPPORT OF EDUCATION AT WHISBY NATURE RESERVE - Whisby Education Centre lies just outside Lincoln, surrounded by 370 acres of nature reserve. It has been carefully designed to balance countryside recreation, nature conservation and environmental education. With regular events planned for all ages, it presents unique opportunities to experience and learn about the natural world first hand. Through our fundraising achieved at our annual ball this year, we hope to support the Centre with vital equipment such as binoculars, microscopes and other items to help support the learning for all ages from Early Years, Primary, Secondary and Further Education.
5. ONSITE NATURE PROJECT INITIATIVES - We will be working on our two Witham depot sites at Lincoln and Soham this year to implement some new simple initiatives to bring back nature. From bird boxes and insect hotels, to looking at ways we can create small natural habitats within the concrete limitations we have.
Whilst we set ourselves specific new environmental objectives each year, we also constantly review our improvements in the following areas:
NEW TECHNOLOGY
Witham Group have developed a unique blending system for the manufacture of its lubricants that, instead of using fossil-fuel energy such as gas, now uses ultrasound and solar panels.
“Blendtek”, as the process is called, removes the need for base oils and additives to be heated at all, therefore eliminating the use of traditional gas and/or oil-fired boilers for heat energy.
Many other UK and global lubricant manufacturers are simply choosing to continue with out-of-date blending practices and often use “carbon dumps and sinks” to offset carbon use to meet their sustainability objectives. Our groundbreaking technology is a global first and can blend lubricants in a carbon-neutral way, saving huge amounts of time, energy, and carbon usage in the first place. This process is helping to radically improve the lubricant industry as a whole and offers a real chance to enhance its environmental reputation and impact. Customers of Witham Group can promote the fact that they use carbon-neutral blended lubricants as part of their own sustainability credentials.
As manufacturers of a huge range of different lubricants, this new technique enables us to blend thousands of tonnes of products using energy from solar panels and a simple 13 amp plug, saving time, energy and drastically reducing our carbon footprint. To blend a simple 10-tonne batch of lubricant now takes less than 20 minutes, whereas previously the same batch would have taken 3 to 4 hours to complete. In addition, it offers extremely low energy consumption per tonne produced; for example, 10 tonnes of blended product now requires only 4 kWh of power, whereas previously, using traditional blending methods, it would have required 1962 kWh of energy.
This new innovative process has been tried and tested by the world’s largest technology providers, independently audited and reviewed, and is fully approved for use.
To evaluate the environmental savings, we have reduced carbon emissions by over 26,000 tonnes since adopting the process, heating the equivalent of over 144 homes in the UK for a year. Our gas consumption has been reduced by just over 93%, and we are now sharing these results and our story of the new ultrasound way of blending with the lubricant industry. We continue to expand the use of the Blendtek technology within our business.
“This exciting breakthrough is all about changing the environmental impact of lubricant manufacturing in the first place. So many environmental schemes and businesses look to offset their impact by using “carbon dumps or sinks”, and other environmental and climate protection projects. We have instead, come up with a way that prevents the creation of high energy use in the first place.” Nigel R Bottom - Group Managing Director.
We are immensely proud of this manufacturing innovation, and we believe we are the first company in the world to blend in a carbon neutral process. We are determined to help other blenders improve their own sustainability profiles and improve the lubricant industry’s reputation with substantial impact. For more information about Blendtek please visit: blendtek.solutions
ENERGY
We always aim to reduce and record the ongoing energy use across the business and regularly review the efficiencies of lighting, heating, ventilation and cooling systems, insulation opportunities, water use, and other general energy and natural resources, as well as identifying new ways for waste reduction and pollution control.
• Using the latest technology we have developed an Energy Dashboard which monitors our energy use and the savings we have made.
• We have installed solar panels to the enormous surface areas of the roofs of our factory and depots. This helps generate new power to heat and light our buildings and supplement the energy we use within them.
• We harvest rainwater and use it to wash and clean our vehicles and other equipment throughout the year. The impact is significant and we save on average 38,400 litres per year.
• We have had PIR lighting installed everywhere to ensure no lights are on unless they need to be.
• We have reduced the amount of gas used in our manufacturing process by over 90% thanks to new technology and a unique new method of manufacturing and blending our products using ultrasound.
PACKAGING
We are now measuring the amount of packaging we use across the business by creating a Packaging Waste Dashboard.
• The plastic lubricant containers are now made from over 35% recycled materials.
• We offer a recycling scheme for our 200-litre metal barrels.
• Our Barn Paint Containers are now made from 100% recycled materials.
• We encourage customers to buy in bulk using our special and uniquely colour-coded bulk storage tanks for workshops and businesses, reducing the need for plastic lubricant containers. This works in conjunction with environmental requirements for lubricant storage by reducing the amount of container packaging sent in smaller orders and the need for frequent deliveries.
• Our cardboard delivery boxes are now made from 100% recycled material.
• The bulk storage tanks also help our customers store and keep lubricants in a clean and tidy manner, helping avoid spills from containers and chemical contamination.
• We use reconditioned pallets in the factory for storage and delivery of products.
• We’re switching to durable, reusable pallet wraps to break the ‘wrap and scrap’ cycle. These Palbands can be used thousands of times, offering a cleaner way to move products between depots. We are currently trialling this at our Soham depot. If successful, this change will save 468kg of single-use plastic per year. To put that into perspective, 468kg is equivalent to:
• Nearly 19,000 plastic drink bottles.
• Enough plastic to fill 35 household wheelie bins.
• Over 90,000 plastic carrier bags.
• Avoiding over 1.1 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Lubricants production is part of a much longer process and value chain, starting with the procurement of raw materials. The raw materials we use include complex chemical raw materials, renewable raw materials, and a wide range of base fluids.
We ensure that the raw materials used comply with all EHS regulations (Environmental, Health and Safety) and that our resulting products meet the latest and highest Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) approval. They are sourced from compliant and reputable suppliers, and the engine lubricants we manufacture are designed to enhance machinery performance while reducing emissions, maintenance costs, and wear and tear.
The demand for safer, cleaner products has led to a significant increase in the development of environmentally sensitive and biodegradable lubricants that still deliver performance comparable to their mineral counterparts.
We have a growing range of award-winning, high-performance, biodegradable, certified NSF food-safe and environmentally sensitive products, using the natural benefits of sheep’s lanolin. Our PROLAN Range of Rust Prevention products offer a “Tough on Rust” solution without all the toxic chemicals usually associated with such products. For the workshops and the end user, they are safe, easy to apply, and clean to use. The key ingredient is lanolin, extracted from sheep’s wool, which is non-toxic and helps protect our environment, especially in rivers, oceans, marinas, forests, and other land areas.
Our BIOLUBE and ENVIROYL ranges use vegetable-based raw materials rather than petroleum-based oils to produce high-performance hydraulic and other industrial lubricants that all help reduce environmental impact.
Further developments include the launch of a new range of non-lithium-based greases, made instead from anhydrous calcium, which offers a more sustainable resource and involves less impactful mining practices.
All products are ideal for the natural countryside, food production, waterways, forestry and farmland. Our specific environmental range includes coolants, chain oils, hydraulic oils, two stroke, wire rope lubricant and other general multi-purpose products. Many industries such as agriculture, marine, horticulture, plant / off highway and renewable energy companies are already experiencing the benefits of this change. We also offer a range of low-toxic paints and coatings which are ideal for your business and home.
We are very proud of this unique and yet remarkable range of products and have been delighted to win awards for our innovation. We continually work hard to find new alternative solutions to traditional chemical-based products.
Winner of Innovation Awards
BIODEGRADABLE WITHAM GROUP
VEHICLES & TRANSPORT
Monitoring the carbon our lorries emit on the road while delivering our products is an integral part of our business. We now study each lorry’s mileage and output, and we aim to reduce our carbon impact continually.
Using our Transportation Dashboard, we can measure the carbon produced, mileage, and fuel use across our delivery fleet of lorries, based on vehicle age, type, etc. We also review how many deliveries are made on each route, so we can use the best vehicles for the right journeys, with the aim of achieving maximum fuel economy and reducing wear and tear on the vehicles themselves. So, as part of our Group’s ongoing strategy to reduce our environmental impact as much as possible, and to share any genuine savings from using fuel-efficient lubricants based on our own fleet with customers, our HGV fleet has switched to fuel-efficient lubricants.
We have switched the lorries from Qualube Supremol 10W-40 to Qualube Supremol 5W-30. The technicalities are the same, but the viscometrics make the difference: less drag, less energy needed, and therefore the vehicle uses less fuel. Still fully approved by Mercedes-Benz, sold by us, and now used by us as a fuel-efficient alternative.
We also use HVO fuel, a Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil, which is a renewable biofuel that can be used as a drop-in replacement for conventional diesel. It is produced by converting waste materials such as animal fats and used cooking oil into high-quality paraffinic diesel via hydrotreatment. HVO burns cleaner, produces significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants like NOx and particulate matter, and has a longer shelf life than traditional diesel.
Several of our company cars are also now electric or hybrid. We have installed charging points at each depot for our own employees and visitors, to encourage the switch to and convenient use of electric transport. Fuel and electricity consumption are also closely monitored.
SAFE & CLEAN OIL STORAGE SOLUTIONS
Lubricants need to be kept safe and stored correctly, not only because it is the law, but also because it provides safer working conditions. As part of our service, we supply a range of unique bulk storage tanks for workshops.
Lubricants are filled up in the colour coded tanks as required, and the tanks have sight gauges, taps or pumps and come labelled with the different product names and their application.
Simple, clean, and easy to use, these tanks help keep working space tidy, safe and they avoid spills from containers. They can avoid oil contamination and improve the environment by using less packaging on individual products. Finally, they provide important health & safety requirements for lubricant storage and with good maintenance the tanks will last for up to 50 years.
WASTE
Responsible collection of our waste materials is of great importance to us. We are continually seeking new and innovative solutions to recycle more of our waste and reduce the amount we produce in the first place.
• We only use certified and approved waste disposal companies to ensure they work closely with the Environmental Agency and are up to date with all regulatory aspects.
• We have also invested in a baling machine to compact our cardboard waste into smaller, denser, easy-to-recycle bundles, which enables less frequent collection.
• We recycle printer cartridges, electronic equipment and paper waste.
• We are cutting down on the use of paper communications, using email to send customer invoices, statements and other internal and external correspondence wherever possible. We are delighted to report that over the past year, we have printed approximately 48,000 fewer sheets of paper through the office printers than the year before, which equates to a 40% reduction in paper use and less ink and energy used in printing.
• The blending flush we use to clean out our lubricant tanks in the manufacturing process is recycled into chain oil and then sold on, avoiding further waste and a great use of turning one product into another, without compromise.
According to Ribble Packaging, industrial packaging and waste experts, a standard pine tree with 45ft of usable trunk and an eight-inch diameter will produce around 10,000 sheets of paper. This means that our paper savings from last year alone have helped to save around 5 trees!!
In addition, we have reviewed the ink usage on the thousands of product labels we make each year and have redesigned the back labels to use less high colour content, and the results have been amazing. We have been able to reduce the amount of ink cartridges used by approximately 43%, which means we have saved over 500 ink cartridges. We can now also produce an impressive 284 labels from each ink cartridge, up from 163 previously.
We will continue to monitor our savings in paper, ink, and all office procedures, and will also work hard, as part of our environmental objectives, to reduce waste further where we can.
COMMUNICATION OF OUR ENVIRONMENT ETHOS
TO OUR TEAM - Our team are fully aware of the need to place the environment at the heart of what we do. From logos on their uniforms, to a dedicated section in our internal newsletter, where we showcase all that we are achieving, we regularly communicate the importance of the continuing process to improve. We ensure our efforts are monitored and reviewed at board meetings and our progress and objectives are continually being measured.
TO OUR CUSTOMERS AND SUPPLIERS – We help our customers store lubricants and paints to the legal requirements and offer help and advice for the disposal of products when finished with, as well as bulk storage tanks and links to the Environment Agency. We have a dedicated section in our customer newsletters about the environment. We keep our customers and suppliers up to date with the latest product developments and environmental progress. We also ask that our suppliers comply with good practices and always operate within a climate of excellence, which is encouraged throughout the whole company ethos.
ONLINE - We have a dedicated Environment section on our website explaining all that we are achieving and working towards. Our online shop also sells our range of environmentally sensitive products and our news blog on our website continually updates visitors with the latest and archived news stories about our sustainability credentials, customer case studies and awards we have received.
SOCIAL MEDIA – We work hard to promote good environmental customer stories, from cleaning up workshops with our bulk storage tanks to promoting products that are more environmentally friendly to use, such as low toxic barn paint, alternatives to creosote and our biodegradable products such as our Prolan range.
AWARDS & ACCREDITATIONS – We are very proud to have won several awards for our efforts to improve the environment. We were delighted to be a finalist in the 2020 Technology and Innovation awards and were proud to be short listed in the Innovation in Sustainability category for our unique blending solution ‘Blendtek’. This demonstrates how we have improved the sustainability of our company and indeed the world around us over the last few years.
Our Prolan Range of lubricants which are made from sheep’s lanolin, has won several awards for environmental achievement and innovation.
We are also a proud holder of the prestigious Royal Warrant, and we use this benchmark of success to drive us forward in all that we do, as well as our ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 industry standards.
We recognise that promoting sustainability and protecting the environment is of the utmost importance, not only for the here and now, but for the future of us all and we will continue to do all that we can.