Sustainability

A responsible business

At Portals, we have been supplying security components to governments and the security industry for over 300 years. We have achieved this by constantly refining the quality and efficiency of our processes and by delivering against sustainability targets whilst also driving innovation.

As an expert security integrator, we are fully committed to being a responsible business, contributing to a better future and actively playing our part to achieve sustainability.

We also seek to enhance society by providing consistently high quality secure and trusted products.  Through our people and organisational values we are consistently mindful of our impact and interactions with our local communities and the wider global environment.

Our energy and resources

We strive to tackle not only prevalent environmental issues by decreasing our emissions, water and energy usage, but also through the implementation of measures to reduce usage rates of raw materials while also only purchasing raw materials from known sustainable sources.

Achieved through investment, an upgrading of machinery, better planning and resource management, our energy efficiency efforts have helped us to deliver a fall in net carbon footprint by 6.5% in the last reporting period.

Portals’ on-site Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant self generates approximately 80% of the Overton Mill’s site requirements and we have aspirations to become totally self sufficient in the future. We also supply any surplus energy to the UK National Grid with in the region of enough power to supply 80,000 houses for a year.

To maximise water efficiencies, we have invested in the latest water filtration technologies across our sites. Powerful filters clean the waste by removing fibres and chemical residues, purifying the water as it completes the filtration process. The water is then able to be reused on site in the production process or is discharged back into one of the local rivers, as clean if not cleaner than it was when it was taken out at the start of the process.

The primary raw material for our banknotes is cotton, a by-product of the textile industry which would otherwise end up as waste going to landfill. For our other high security papers, we use wood pulp sourced via the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), the world’s largest forest certification system, promoting sustainable forest management and helping to protect the world’s trees.

Our local environment

Our strong commitment to sustainability our local environment is further evidenced by the relationships we foster with the UK Environment Agency. We are also proud to have achieved and consistently maintained our accreditation for ISO14001, the global standard for environmental management systems. Our UK sites are located in two beautiful rural parts of England, situated on the edge of small villages and close knit communities. Alongside the neighbouring countryside and nearby riverbanks, our sites are home to an abundance of wildlife, which means we have both a desire and an obligation to protect our local environment.

Our people and communities

Portals actively supports its local communities, with a large proportion of employees coming from within a ten-mile radius of the site. The company contributes to its local communities through a variety of activities and charitable fundraising, encouraging its employees to get involved and engage with local groups. Portals also proudly puts its people and customers at the heart of the business. We value everyone working at Portals and are committed to investing in our people through training and apprenticeships. We protect their legal and human rights and are dedicated to keeping our employees safe in the workplace while also behaving in an environmentally sustainable manner. Furthermore, Portals is staunchly committed to inclusivity and diversity.

Our values and Integrity

Expectations of ourselves and each other are built on Portals’ five core values – PACE: Performance driven, Adaptable, Customer focused and Engaged. Combined with the Portals’ code of business principles, we are committed to the highest ethical standards. Whatever our roles are and wherever we work, we have a responsibility to ensure that we demonstrate integrity in the way we behave with each other, our customers and other partners.

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