The Markey Group is putting sustainability at the heart of its focus with a £750,000 investment in green tech at its Gloucestershire head office.

Since the removal of its mains gas supply and implementation of a Biomass boiler back in 2012, Markey Group and its subsidiaries have always looked for economically viable avenues to reduce their carbon footprint. It believes now is the time to double down on its environmental efforts in the wake of the COP26 Climate Change Conference.

Five twin 7kW totem chargepoints have been installed in the Markey Group head office car park in Hardwicke, allowing for 10 EVs to charge simultaneously. These chargepoints will not only provide charging for company cars and vans but allow Markey Group employees to charge their own vehicles used to commute to and from work.

Group managing director Paul Markey said: "We know that not all of our employees have the luxury of off-street parking or access to chargepoints at home, so we hope the availability and reliability of EV chargepoints at work may help our employees switch to electric vehicles."

All chargepoints will be on the Pod Point national chargepoint network allowing for the chargepoints to be operated in the same way as all Pod Point chargepoints such as those at Lidl and Tesco. Initially, the chargepoints will be restricted for employee and visitor usage only and will be free of charge.

With an eye on the future, Markey Construction, who carried out the groundworks, installed ducting for an additional 18 chargepoints allowing for extra capacity to be added as and when demand requires.

In collaboration with the EV leasing specialist Fleet Electric, an EV salary sacrifice scheme has been launched, allowing eligible employees to sacrifice part of their salary in return for a fully maintained and insured electric vehicle.

Group people services manager Geraldine Miller said: "We are extremely pleased to be able to assist our employees in their own efforts to be more sustainable and join the electric revolution. We know the perceived cost of electric cars puts our employees off switching, so being able to provide them with savings of 30-40 per cent on an electric car will ensure cost isn't a barrier."

The Markey Group head office where the construction and manufacturing division's of the group are based along with the group services teams covers 110,000 square foot. There is potential for up to one MegaWatt (MG) of solar energy to be produced using PV panels placed on the roof providing green electricity to the building and vehicle chargepoints.

A project is underway to ascertain the viability of the system to enhance the amount of green energy utilised by the group with plans to implement in the next six months. As well as providing clean green energy, it will further reduce the carbon footprint of every kitchen unit and furniture item produced by Premiere, the group's manufacturing division.

In recent years Markey Group businesses have made a concerted effort to reduce the CO2 emissions of the vehicles it uses. In use across the businesses are four Electric Vehicles (EVs) and 10 Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) helping to reduce the overall CO2 emissions of the car and van fleet down to 93 g/km.

To ensure employees have the ability to charge their vehicles at all possibilities, as well as the head office chargepoints, company car drivers will be getting chargepoints installed at their homes.

Based in Hardwicke, Gloucestershire, family-run Markey Group consists of several specialist subsidiary companies operating in the fields of property management and development, construction, manufacturing and health care.

Initially established in 1963 by the late Brendan Markey as a local building company, the group is now run by his sons, Tony and Paul, and posts annual turnover in excess of £30m and employing more than 250 people.