ELLAND: On National Carbon Footprint Day (2 October), hard landscaping firm Marshalls has unveiled a further 1565 official carbon labels for all its commercial paving products.

Earlier in 2009, Marshalls revealed carbon labels for over 500 products in its domestic range.

Then, it was the first company in the world to label an entire range of products and the first in the hard landscaping industry to work with the Carbon Trust’s labelling scheme.

Now, Marshalls’ carbon labelling programme has extended to commercial products which will enable organisations like public bodies and local authorities to understand the amount of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted from extracting and processing raw materials, manufacturing, distributing, and disposing of these products.

Chris Harrop, group marketing director at Marshalls, said: “We couldn’t be unveiling our commercial carbon labels on a better day than National Carbon Footprint Day. This is a great continuation of a very ambitious carbon reduction programme for Marshalls.

“When we started working with the Carbon Trust nearly three years ago, we knew we were making a big commitment. But there’s no point in only carbon labelling one or two products. This is about providing information and a choice of products to compare.”

Marshalls understands the environmental, behavioural and economic issues involved in creating 21st century landscapes. It is only by providing carbon emission information to the commercial sector that better landscapes can be created for all to enjoy.

Mr Harrop continues: “Carbon reduction is a key Government target as it is for Marshalls. If we are to build and create the kinds of spaces and landscapes that will help improve education, health and wellbeing, we have to understand the impact our products are having on the environment. This is why it’s so important for the commercial sector to understand carbon footprints – they can make their buying decisions based on impact and carbon reduction.”

Marshalls was one of 13 companies to work with the Carbon Trust on a pilot carbon labelling scheme which helped develop Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050. The Carbon Trust and Defra worked with BSI British Standards to develop the UK standard for measuring the embodied greenhouse gas from products and services across their lifecycle that will be applicable to a wide range of sectors and product categories.