A manufacturing company based in Bristol has saved the equivalent to the electricity used in 100 houses over two years through its energy reduction programme.
December 14, 2006 (Press Release) --
A manufacturing company based in Bristol has saved the equivalent to the electricity used in 100 houses over two years through its energy reduction programme H.E.R.O (Horstmann Energy Reduction Operation). A taskforce was set up to take control of the way the company used energy resources and a range of initiatives were introduced; a colour coded lighting system and a shutdown procedure at night as well as more sophisticated measures such as a colour coded zoning system and the installation of monitoring systems in toilets and stairwells to enable savings of 24.3% on their energy bill.
Andrew Deeming, Engineering Director at Horstmann comments;
“Like many companies, we were looking at areas where we could save money and the energy bill was a good place to start. It soon became clear to us that the amount of money being wasted by leaving lights on through the night and having the air cooling system 20% higher than it needed to be was having an enormous effect on the bill not to mention carbon emissions.” By taking control of the situation and making the staff energy aware we have made massive savings over two years.”
The staff led taskforce was set up when the company, a manufacturer of central heating controls and smart metering products, looked into the way its energy was being used by obtaining a more detailed breakdown from the supplier. The discovery was soon made that the majority of energy wastage was taking place in the following areas:
• Lighting (mostly at night)
• PCs, Printers, Photocopiers being left on or on standby
• Air cooling and heating systems being set too high and left on through the night
• Factory Machinery not being switched off at the end of a shift as the warm up time took over an hour
The first task on the list was to prepare a company shutdown procedure to involve all staff members. The taskforce, lead by Production Engineer Simon Powell decided to use humour as a prompt into getting the staff to carry out simple actions. Kitchener style posters with ‘Your Company Needs You to Save Energy and ‘Become a H.E.R.O’ as well as Buzz Light-Year and other cartoon characters acted as reminders to switch off PC’s, printers and the photocopier at the end of each day. Email announcements were also sent to all staff showing them the results of their actions and thanking them for their contributions to the scheme.
A more complex task was carried out to ‘zone’ the lighting in areas such as toilets and stairwells as well as on the factory floor where shift workers would come and go at different times of the day but have the lights on for the whole factory. Colour coding was introduced on light switch panels and a corresponding area of the factory to enable staff to switch off their ‘zone’ at the end of a shift rather than leaving the whole factory lit up until 10pm when the last person left. The total carbon emissions saving is equivalent to over 150 Tonnes of CO2 per year.
Andrew Deeming, Engineering Director at Horstmann comments;
“Like many companies, we were looking at areas where we could save money and the energy bill was a good place to start. It soon became clear to us that the amount of money being wasted by leaving lights on through the night and having the air cooling system 20% higher than it needed to be was having an enormous effect on the bill not to mention carbon emissions.” By taking control of the situation and making the staff energy aware we have made massive savings over two years.”
The staff led taskforce was set up when the company, a manufacturer of central heating controls and smart metering products, looked into the way its energy was being used by obtaining a more detailed breakdown from the supplier. The discovery was soon made that the majority of energy wastage was taking place in the following areas:
• Lighting (mostly at night)
• PCs, Printers, Photocopiers being left on or on standby
• Air cooling and heating systems being set too high and left on through the night
• Factory Machinery not being switched off at the end of a shift as the warm up time took over an hour
The first task on the list was to prepare a company shutdown procedure to involve all staff members. The taskforce, lead by Production Engineer Simon Powell decided to use humour as a prompt into getting the staff to carry out simple actions. Kitchener style posters with ‘Your Company Needs You to Save Energy and ‘Become a H.E.R.O’ as well as Buzz Light-Year and other cartoon characters acted as reminders to switch off PC’s, printers and the photocopier at the end of each day. Email announcements were also sent to all staff showing them the results of their actions and thanking them for their contributions to the scheme.
A more complex task was carried out to ‘zone’ the lighting in areas such as toilets and stairwells as well as on the factory floor where shift workers would come and go at different times of the day but have the lights on for the whole factory. Colour coding was introduced on light switch panels and a corresponding area of the factory to enable staff to switch off their ‘zone’ at the end of a shift rather than leaving the whole factory lit up until 10pm when the last person left. The total carbon emissions saving is equivalent to over 150 Tonnes of CO2 per year.
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