Based in Avonmouth and trading since 1952, Mathias & Sons is a 4th-generation family run business that provides tailored workwear and personal protective equipment to well-known organisations across the UK.
Being aware of the need to adapt, the business has embraced many changes over the last 70 years, showing commitment to technology, sustainability and reducing carbon emissions to meet the challenges of today.
Mathias & Sons’ direct operations are all under one roof, with their premises made up of administrative offices, warehousing for storage and logistics and a selection of machines and workstations to embellish garments & PPE. The varied work needs different lighting, heating and cooling conditions, which is challenging in industrial buildings like theirs.
The business committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions a few years ago. Since then, they have made progress, particularly by drastically reducing plastic packaging and waste from the products they source as well as moving their fleet to electric vehicles. They also replaced all of their lighting with low energy LEDs but wanted to do more to accelerate their journey.
They used their Carbon Survey to help them focus on key areas that had the biggest impact on their carbon footprint. Jason Mathias, Director says “the knowledge of the advisor was excellent and the report offered a very easy to use summary, identifying what gives you the biggest bang for your buck in terms of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and cash investment. There was also a fair bit of detail in terms of useful resources to highlight the benefits.”
75% reduction in energy use 
£8,800 annual savings to energy bills 
28tCO2e annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions 
Having made significant progress, Mathias & Sons have further plans to build on their carbon-saving journey. “Our next areas of focus will be installing ceiling insulation in our offices and radiant heaters above our embroidery machine, which we hope will enable us to reduce the temperature in the warehouse by a couple of degrees”. They also plan to install thermostatic radiator valves to the heating system in the offices and would like to understand more about the indirect emissions from their supply chains.
CO2e savings calculated using BEIS Conversion Factors 2017. Energy costs calculated from BEIS Energy and Emissions Projections 2018, using 2020 retail prices. West of England Green Business Grants 2019-2023 is funded by the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund and the West of England Combined Authority’s Recovery Fund.
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