The latest news from the Unipart Rail Group of Companies



Thumbs up, emissions down!

Thumbs up, emissions down!

2017 Energy and Waste Figures are in!


Tags: Business News Value - Corporate Social Responsibility


Corporate responsibility is very important to us - and huge reductions in our energy usages over the last four years mean that we are lessening our impact on the environment. And we've also reported big reductions in waste generation.

Our main manufacturing sites in Crewe and York have reported the following reductions over the last 4 year period:

  • Electricity use reduction of 19%
  • Gas use reduction of 18%
  • Water use reduction of 18%

The waste reduction figures are even more impressive:

  • Non-recyclable waste reduction of 77%
  • Waste metal reduction of 70%
  • Cardboard and Plastic waste reduction of 46%
  • Wood waste reduction of 5%
Our Unipart Dorman site in Southport has also acheived a massive reduction in Carbon Dioxide emissions, reducing the amount emitted from nearly 300,000 Kg in 2016 to just over 100,000 Kg in 2017. Read more here.
 
How we've done it - some examples
 
Our "Switch Off" campaign is supported by stickers in prominent locations, awareness through 'environmental pauses' and on induction for new starters as part of SHIELD 1 training.
 
Additionally, we are replacing as we go fluorescent lighting tubes with LEDs and LED energy efficient lighting panels. We are also starting to install PIR motion sensors in the mess rooms and other 'common' areas so that the lights are only used when the space is occupied. 
 
At our Crewe site, we have a building management system that controls the temperature. We are now looking at upgrading this system to utilise cloud based software, which will give even greater control over gas usage on the site. 
 
The simple introduction of 'push' taps across Crewe has contributed to the water reduction.
 
Finally, we have a service contracts in place that ensures none of our general waste goes to landfill. Our general waste is sorted through and either recycled further or sent to a 'waste for energy' facility. We support this again with ongoing awareness encouraging recycling through waste segregation across the sites. We also influence our contractors through a site induction and our 'Contractor Authority to Work" processes. We have recently installed more glass recycling bins following a feedback session with our cleaning contractor.
 
Separately these and other initiatives are small things. But the more of these we do, and the more we encourage and educate in reducing our footprint through sensible energy usage and waste reduction, the better we will become.




About this author
Dave Tilmouth

Head of Marketing Communications

I'm Head of Marketing Communications for Unipart Rail, so I get to be involved in lots of exciting stuff across Traction & Rolling Stock, Infrastructure and road traffic. My colleagues know me as someone who has a perspective on everything, as well as being a bit of an extrovert!

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