First steps to reducing your carbon footprint
March 1st 2008

Andy Dorr, health, safety and environmental manager at Lambda's configurable power supply manufacturing plant in Devon, outlines some simple steps he used to improve the facility's environmental performance

Having recently been accredited to ISO 14001 and won the e-Legacy Contribution to Sustainability Award for its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, Lambda is well-placed to advise on ways that manufacturers can reduce their carbon footprint.

For those looking to improve the impact that their business has on the environment, but are struggling to know where to start, then ISO 14001 accreditation is a good step in the right direction. What's more, because of its similarity in structure to the now de-rigueur ISO 9001 standard, steps to achieving ISO 14001 does not involve a giant leap into the unknown.

Perhaps the over riding point before any successful environmental management system can be put in place is that you must have commitment from senior management. We are very lucky here at Lambda UK in Ilfracombe in the fact that our general manager, Phil Scotcher has strongly supported much of the work we have done. Senior management 'buy-in', for want of a better phrase, is essential so that any resources that are needed can be easily put in place.

Recycling We started by identifying the materials that constituted the bulk of our waste and the recycling team, which was put in place as part of the ISO 14001 initiative, set about finding the optimum way of reducing the landfill burden. One of the first steps we made was to reduce the huge number of polypropylene and polystyrene component trays being use in our production department. We now return these trays to our supplier, who developed an effective method of reusing them.

Incidentally, a very pleasant side-effect of implementing this new system is a whopping saving of £40,000 each year! Another simple recycling measure we applied was our 'save-a-cup' scheme.

Previously, vending machine cups went straight into the bin and then onto landfill; now they're recycled. We discovered a local firm that turns plastic cups into office equipment – an added bonus is that all the proceeds go to charity.

In conjunction with recycling, one of the most effective methods we found of reducing the burden on landfill has been to employ a compaction and baling system. The compactor we invested in reduces the volume of waste going to landfill, while the baler is used to collect soft plastics for recycling. As a result of both the recycling initiatives and using the compaction and baling system, the number of 1100 litre wheelie bins collected per week has been cut dramatically from 18 to only four in just nine months. That's a saving of 700 wheelie bins worth of waste per year – a 79% reduction in volume. The return on investment for the compaction and baling system was met within the first year just from the £7000 savings in landfill costs alone.

Energy efficiency The introduction of the Climate Change Levy, Enhanced Capital Allowances and the interest-free loans available from organisations such as The Carbon Trust, make for a convoluted landscape.

One initiative we have taken advantage of is the free energy survey available through The Carbon Trust. As a result of this survey, we are now trialling an automatic energy monitoring and targeting system that enables us to measure and monitor our energy consumption within different areas of our facility.

Working with legislation Being in the electronics industry, the introduction of the RoHS (Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment) Directive was a major challenge to Lambda. The Directive, which came into force in 2006, bans the placing on the EU market of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants.

In readiness to ensure that our products were RoHS compliant before the deadline, we decided not to rely solely on declarations from our suppliers but to go the extra mile and invest £46,000 in sophisticated equipment. This enabled us to closely examine all incoming components to our facility for banned substances.

The WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive is legislation that we fully endorse despite the fact that our power supplies are not strictly covered.

We maintain that if any of our customers are concerned about the disposal of our product, they can send it back to us here at Lambda and we will dispose of it for them.

We offer this service for two reasons, firstly, because there is some concern over current disposal methods and secondly, to demonstrate best practice. By going beyond the requirements of the legislation, we hope that other companies will re-assess the work they are doing and consider setting up similar schemes.

A by-product of all of our environmental work is that we are now embarking on a project to help us understand the environmental impact of all our products.

We are taking a cradle to grave approach and analysing the lifecycle, from the energy required to produce the metalwork to the issues of disposal, and hope to come up with answers for each of our products.

One of the key elements of ISO 14001 and the essence of work in this area is continued improvement. The project teams, established to meet the needs of this standard, continue to explore new ideas such as teleconferencing, car sharing and cycle-to-work schemes. Yet it's the first small steps taken towards reducing your carbon footprint that have the biggest impact – each of these initiatives take big chunks off your organisation's footprint.

Hopefully, Lambda's success will inspire others to implement some simple ideas which will benefit both them, the bottom line and lest we forget ultimately…the planet where we all live, everyday.

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