St Andrews Timber & Building Supplies has stepped up its sustainability drive by installing electric vehicle charging points at all four of its depots across Scotland.

Headquartered at Prestonfield in Edinburgh, the firm serves both trade and retail customers across the Scottish central belt from two locations in the capital as well as Livingston and along the M8 in Paisley.

A recent fitting of two EV points at its West Lothian base saw St Andrews complete its first phase of installations of the 22kW fast chargers, with more to come as it grows its fleet of electric vehicles.

Ronnie Robinson, St Andrews managing director said: “Having this kind of infrastructure in place is another important step towards a more sustainable future for us. We already have government legislation relating to responsibly sourced materials and as a company we want to try to stay ahead of the curve on this one. 

We are well aware that operating in this type of business, we work with large heavy goods vehicles, heavy diesel forklifts, machinery and imported materials so it would be remiss of us not to do what we can to try to reduce our carbon footprint.”

He added: “It should be an essential part of any business plan for companies these days. 

We have been keeping a close eye on our operations. There are always developments in the green energy and renewable space and we should all be striving to move towards a more sustainable future.  

If a smaller independent company like ours can make big changes to its operations and structure to help facilitate this, then we think it sends the right message to the wider industry.”

The family-run builders’ merchants recently announced the formation of a new landscaping division as part of an expanded service offering to its growing customer base.