CASE STUDY – Reducing energy, reducing costs.

Background

We’ve been working with a small to medium sized Timber Joinery based in NSW, for a number of years.  It’s been a mutually beneficial relationship.  They are the type of client that Sustainability Consultants love to work with. They have great leadership and people on the ground that are really committed to lowering the company’s environmental impacts.  They are a progressive company that have achieved great environmental outcomes.

The focus of the case study is on ENERGY and how they have achieved significant reductions over a 5 year period.

Environmental Initiatives

As part of having a certified ISO14001 EMS, we are continually looking at opportunities to reduce energy.  And when I say ‘we’ it’s a real collective effort. The client has seen significant reductions over a 5 year period.

Gradually every year, a new initiative was implemented, which showed us steady decreases in energy. This is how it was done;

  • Skylights provide a light environment for staff to work, on sunny days.
  • LED lighting has been installed in the factory.
  • Energy efficient machinery has been considered when purchasing new machines.
  • Ongoing maintenance of factory equipment ensures they are operating efficiently and not drawing extra unnecessary power.

We also implemented a ‘TRAFFIC LIGHT SYSTEM’, a series of RED, ORANGE and GREEN dots (stickers) which are placed on light switches, electrical equipment and machinery, as a VISUALAID to remind staff to ‘switch off’.

  • RED = DON’T switch off, e.g. Fridges, fax machines
  • ORANGE = turn off at the END of EACH DAY, e.g. computers, compressors and lighting
  • GREEN= turn off WHEN NOT in USE, e.g. lighting, machinery, air conditioning, fans etc

In 2013 the Gillard Government introduced a $1 billion Clean Technology Investment program, which the organisation saw as an opportunity and received a grant to install a LARGE 195kwh solar electricity generation system that spans the entire roof of their manufacturing facility. The payback for the cost of this system is predicted to be 5 years, at a cost saving of $34,000 a year.

RESULTS

Through implementing these initiatives, we’ve seen a steady decline in energy figures over the last 4 years. 

  • 2011 kwh data against 2010, saw a 36 % reduction
  • 2012 kwh data against 2011, saw a 14% reduction
  • 2013 kwh data against 2012, saw a  25% reduction
  • 2014 kwh data against 2013, saw a 56% reduction in energy use

The 56% reduction was due to the installation of the 195 kilowatt solar panel system.

In 2015 we saw an increase in energy due to the purchasing of additional factory machinery and other factors, so we’ve initiated additional staff training to remind staff to ‘switch off’ unnecessary lighting, machinery and appliances.

We are monitoring this, and are tracking for a 13% reduction, for the same period as last year.

Even taking into account the increase in energy in 2015, over the 5 year period, based on production figures we’ve seen a total reduction of 155% in energy use.

A win for the environment and a win for the client, with a fairly modest reduction in energy costs.

NB: All the above kwh data figures are based on the production figures.