Econ Lights The Way In Environmental Good Practice

A national engineering company is lighting the way in environmental good practice after replacing all of its lights with industry sensing LED Luminaires.

Econ Engineering – which supplies 85 per cent of the winter maintenance vehicles used on Britain’s roads and employs a workforce of more than 240 – is committed to significantly reducing its carbon footprint with a series of green initiatives.

In relation to the LED Luminaires, the bulbs sense movement within the workplace and adjust the light strength accordingly. This will save 109 tonnes of carbon entering the atmosphere per year over the old system.

As well as being more energy efficient - which in turn has reduced Econ’s demand on the national grid – the new bulbs have a substantially longer lifetime, which makes them significantly more environmentally friendly.

This move comes on back of the firm investing more than £220,000 in green technology with the installation of 800 photovoltaic solar panels on the main factory roof.

These panels with their estimated yield of 158,000 KWh/Year will offset 62.5 tonnes of carbon every year. This means that over their 25-year lifetime, they will provide a carbon saving of 1,562,566kg.

The company anticipates that this measure alone will reduce its electrical consumption by 15 per cent per year.

And a £850,000 state-of-the-art laser cutter it has just purchased is helping increase throughput in its engineering workshop as well as reducing CO2 emissions.

The new Bystar Fibre 6225 Dynamic uses nitrogen in the cutting process as opposed to carbon dioxide. As opposed to its predecessor, it uses only 50kw/hr of electricity against 98kw/hr, which will save approximately 75 tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

Additionally, Econ employs a small team of dedicated buyers to source its materials and parts locally as a priority.

By sourcing locally, it not only supports the local economy within Yorkshire – where the firm is based - but it also helps to reduce its carbon footprint by reducing the levels of transportation associated with delivering component parts.

The supply chain manager also has a mandate to monitor purchasing levels, to reduce excess waste and the amount of co² consumed in deliveries. It is also committed to recycling all its scrap metal too.

Beverley Shepherd, Econ Engineering’s HR and Finance Director, said: “We are continually reviewing our carbon footprint as part of our environmental policy.

“This is in line with the UK Government’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050, and the Renewable Energy Directive target of generating 15 per cent of UK energy consumption from renewable sources by the end of this year.

“We take our environmental credentials very seriously and are committed to ensuring we work in the most environmentally way possible. We are proud of our efforts so far, but we realise there is still more work to be done.

“However, with the support of all our employees – and suppliers - we know we can achieve this.”