Oliver Cripps Joins Etex as Head of Sustainability

We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Oliver Cripps as Etex’s new Head of Sustainability, UK&I to support our leading brands, including Siniat.

Oliver will be focused on driving our sustainability agenda, heightening its environmental credentials for our operations and product solutions, decreasing reliance on raw materials and sharing his expertise to develop the capabilities of our entire Etex team.

Oliver brings 25 years of experience in sustainability across a variety of sectors, including tourism, land management and manufacturing. His previous roles include Senior Sustainability Manager at Dyson Technology where he led sustainability for the New Product Innovation and Research teams, and experience working with global furniture manufacturer, MillerKnoll to support R&D and corporate sustainability.

He joins us at a critical time as our multi-million-pound new plasterboard facility moves into its next phase of construction. The factory has been designed with sustainability at its core and will include a rainwater harvesting system, as well as ambitions for a fully electric forklift fleet. The new plasterboard facility will also support us to further increase post-consumer recycled gypsum beyond its current market-leading level.

Oliver commented: “One of the largest factors that drove me to consider the opportunity with the organisation, is its dedication to building a better, more sustainable future. The building materials industry relies heavily on raw materials which have a significant environmental footprint. However, Etex takes responsibility for the challenge, has a groupwide programme to reduce its footprint, and is committed to using innovation to meet its ambitions.

In fact, Etex has already committed 50% of its innovation fund to focus on sustainability, which is a clear example of how Etex uses sustainability as a guiding compass of business transformation and makes concrete investments to reach its goals.”

Oliver's appointment follows the release of our annual sustainability scorecard reporting that last year, our relative carbon emissions (scope 1 and 2) were down 5.7% on 2020’s and 21.7% on 2010’s figures, surpassing the sector target proposed for 2025 (20%).