Making the most of sustainable manufacturing

Over recent years, WM and others have conducted surveys seeking out manufacturers' attitudes towards environmental issues and to discover the actions being taken in and around UK plants to reduce what is now universally and euphemistically described as their carbon footprint. Offered a sort of 'Family Fortunes' opportunity to come up with their favourites when asked to, "Select from the following list those actions you are taking to reduce your factory's impact on the environment", the top answer is invariably the same. "Turning off the lights." There's nothing wrong with saving on the electricity bill by good housekeeping, but the overwhelming and constant popularity of the measure may suggest that manufacturers need to think more deeply and act more widely if the economic, environmental and social benefits of carbon management are to be more fully realised. Many are already doing so. For example, new evidence from the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) published last month suggests that the majority of the UK's smaller and medium-size manufacturers are proactive in seeking out new markets to sustain and grow their businesses despite the tough financial lending climate. It found that a large percentage of SME manufacturers plan to target low carbon markets, and have their own low carbon practices in place, by the end of 2013. More than half are already investing in their own low carbon processes. MAS reckons that investing in sensible low carbon business opportunities makes sense. The markets for the right low carbon products are expanding rapidly as the UK, the EU and many other parts of the world seek to tackle climate change, it says. The low carbon and environmental goods and services market, including the wider supply chain, increased to £3.2 trillion globally in 2008/09 and is projected to grow at 4% a year over the next five years. Turning out the light or, as MAS puts it, "cutting costs through energy efficiency in existing operations that improve the bottom line" plays its part but low carbon investment can be more radical, it goes on, stretching to adapting a product range to fit newly developing markets. MAS national network manager Roger Parr is encouraged by manufacturers' focus on the opportunities that these markets which, in the UK alone, he believes are worth £112 billion. With the results from the so-called MAS barometer also identifying that 70% of firms in the UK already manufacture products that could potentially be supplied to the low carbon marketplace with a similar figure having a product or service that could be easily adapted, Parr says, "The results strongly support the Carbon Trust's prediction that the transition to a low carbon economy could increase business' value by up to 80%". To make sure no-one misses out, he points out that MAS has strengthened its low carbon opportunity programme whereby experienced manufacturing advisors help SME manufacturers recognise and unlock the nuclear, low carbon vehicle, low carbon building and renewable energy supply-chain, as well as others. One company to benefit is Grantham, Lincolnshire-based BGB Innovation which was helped in adapting an existing product to supply low carbon markets. Its marketing and IT director David Holt says: "We saw the potential for our generator slip ring assemblies to supply the wind turbine industry and as a result we have become one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of these components. The low carbon markets are out there for the taking and will continue to grow over the course of the next decade." Hull-based Ideal Heating, another MAS patient, achieved the Carbon Trust Standard, as a result of which it expects to attract around £250,000 of new business contracts over the next 12 months. The £97m turnover, 560 employee business reached the standard after identifying and quantify savings of 1,500 tonnes of CO2 achieved in the last three years and measuring annual energy cost savings of £65,000. All in the cause of winning more contracts with leading construction firms after it introduced an Atlas Copco ES130 compressor management system and a heat recovery system that uses destratification fans at its premises, as well as switching from compressed air to electrically powered hand tools. Further possible initiatives, such as zone metering, automatic lighting sensors in its main assembly line and a waste water management system will help Ideal to meet its on-going Carbon Trust Standard commitment to reduce CO2 emissions by at least two per cent each year. Works engineering manager Dean Martin says: "We already have an environmental management system which is accredited to ISO 14001-2004, but wanted to look at other ways to demonstrate to our customers that we were serious about addressing carbon management in a responsible manner." As a result the company is now able to refer to its Carbon Trust Standard when bidding for new contracts, which it expects to grow significantly over the next year. It is certainly true that the encouragement of good environmental practice covers the waterfront – whether it comes from staging a political double act featuring Business Secretary Vince Cable and Energy Secretary Chris Huhne posing outside Number 10 for the first ever UK appearance of Honda's new FCX Clarity zero emission hydrogen powered car or suppliers to manufacturing like ABB offering a free slide rule to show how savings can achieved by changing industry's high energy consumption motors over to variable speed drive control. Apropos of which ABB's UK energy spokesperson Steve Ruddell points out: "All too often we see campaigns encouraging us to switch off the lights. While I endorse any initiative that saves energy, the impact of installing just one variable speed drive on one 110 kW motor is the same as switching off 3,422 high efficiency light bulbs." Staying with the idea of significant savings, leading plastic packaging manufacturer Closures is on track to reduce annual operating costs by over £52,000 thanks to a series of energy saving initiatives implemented by its supplier, the process cooling specialist IsoCool. Closures manufactures in-mould-label cream pot containers and lids, and over 2 billion closures a year for the UK dairy market. To fulfil increasing demand, the company extended its 4000sqm Mansfield -based factory this year, and after a tendering process for a new cooling system appointed IsoCool to install cooling for the extension and its 12 big new injection moulding machines. It didn't quite end there though, explains IsoCool MD Nigel Hallett. "With a combination of upgrading, recycling and centralising, we knew we could make Closures overall system much more energy-efficient." Now with the extension of the cooling system across other factory units, Closures will save over £50,000 a year having tapped into a Carbon Trust loan to help manage the cost of the initial investment. Back in the world of alternative fuel cars, a brand new piece of research conducted by WM on behalf of the manufacturing arm of business consultancy Deloitte indicates that manufacturers in the automotive sector are planning an alternative-fuelled future. Analysing the work, Dominic Oughton, principal industrial fellow with the University of Cambridge's Institute for Manufacturing believes the message that comes through loud and clear is an awareness of the urgent need for innovation in the sector. "Public concern over global warming and impending peak oil is driving demand for products that offer reduced environmental impact," he says. "It is an attractive opportunity for manufacturers within the electric vehicle supply chain." The research reveals expectation of a significant increase in business activity related to low carbon vehicles by 2020. The firms questioned predicted a doubling in demand in the next decade. This is likely to lead to some interesting developments as alternatives are phased in over the next decade, believes Oughton. "Competition will be fierce until a market-leading or dominant technology emerges. It was encouraging to see that the manufacturers are exploring a number of different solutions across technologies, with an emphasis on electric, hybrid and alternative fuel systems." That's not to discount the barriers to progress in the adoption of low carbon vehicle technologies, such as challenges in battery technology, the need for improved range and for effective charging infrastructure. "The industry faces a number of challenges relating to technology and systems integration," Oughton concludes. "These can only be overcome through a combination of changes in user behaviour and the provision of appropriate infrastructure, incentives and regulation." North of the border – where turning off the lights during shorter days and longer nights is maybe not an option – director in charge of Scottish Enterprise's Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) Steve Graham says Scotland is witnessing a growing trend in the manufacturing sector to look at alternative sources of power, and self-sufficiency in manufacturing is one of these trends. What he calls 'green-washing' has been used a lot to describe businesses disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly, but he insists that many of Scotland's manufacturers are spearheading the green revolution and looking to become self-sufficient in the power and utilities they use. "Over £100 billion is planned to be invested in offshore wind over the next 10 years, says Graham, "providing a massive opportunity for Scottish manufacturing businesses in the future. Scotland's well established engineering expertise has been built upon offshore experience and coastal infrastructure Scotland possesses. This, together with the best wind resource in Europe, means the nation is well positioned to reap the benefits that offshore wind development offers." And he can point to a clutch of local manufacturers who are more than holding their own environmentally. Albert Bartlett & Sons, an Airdrie-based family business supplying over 500,000 tons of fresh potatoes each year boasts a building management system delivering exemplary levels of energy efficiency and minimising its environmental impact. "The site is 98% self sufficient in water; the on-site water treatment plant harvests, treats and recycles rain water from the roof and we are aiming to be 100% sufficient in electricity through the installation of a 2MW wind turbine," explains the firm's head of development and innovation Gillian Kynoch. "Our energy management systems and recycling programmes are at the forefront of the industry, and enable us to continually improve our ecological and environmental footprint." Improved effluent/water control and recycling have delivered savings of £225,000 a year, energy management in the packing facility saved £7000 a year, there has been a 70% reduction in packaging materials and even repairing damaged wooden pallets and boxes locally recovers £3000 a year. Elsewhere, Macphie of Glenbervie became, in 2008, the first manufacturer to produce food ingredients using green energy created from locally-sourced wood chips burned on-site, in a multi-million pound 1.2MW biomass boiler and has invested £500,000 in a third state-of-the-art effluent water treatment plant producing a by-product of sludge, which is recycled as a fertiliser. By 2020, Scotland is aiming to generate 20% of total energy, and 50% of electricity from renewable resources, mostly via offshore wind. If the rest of the UK could follow suit, there's not much danger of the lights going out on British manufacturing