28 September 2012
Bestway enhances its green credentials
Bestway Group has been recertified under the Carbon Trust Standard for achieving further reduction in carbon emissions over the last two years.
Notwithstanding the growth of its UK business, the effectiveness of its energy efficiency strategy has improved, resulting in an average reduction of 5.6% since the last assessment in 2010.
To achieve the Carbon Trust Standard, organisations must demonstrate a commitment to good carbon management practices and reductions in their emissions from their onsite use of gas and electricity over a three year period.
The recertification process is more robust, demanding a greater focus on not only maintaining the commitment to emission reduction from onsite electricity and gas usage, but also from fuel used for transport and business miles.
The Group has achieved these savings through investment in a number of energy efficiency initiatives including over £7m in lighting and refrigeration upgrades, use of new generation of refrigerant R-407F and propane which will allow up to 40% reduction in system CO2 emissions and up to 10% improvement in system running costs, installation of voltage optimisation and power factor correction in the main headquarters and several other sites and intelligent design of the newly opened Bestway branch at Aintree where air source heat pumps were incorporated to provide renewable heating with nil gas consumption.
In addition, several locations have undergone refurbishments with a focus on reducing heat loss from the buildings through fabric measures and maximising the use of natural daylight available.
The Group has installed automatic metering across all sites to improve data accuracy and variable speed drives on air handling equipment, deployed a comprehensive energy management system to facilitate stakeholder engagement and re-commissioned the building management systems.
To ensure their ongoing commitment to emission reduction across the business they have introduced a low carbon vehicle policy, VORTEX deflectors on all new trailers to increase aerodynamics and reduce fuel consumption and fitted the entire commercial fleet with trackers and fuel monitoring devices to help reduce fuel consumption, idling times and optimise delivery routes.
Zahir Fazaldin, Group Property and Transport Controller commented: "We are delighted to be recognised for our continued effort to reduce emissions by the Carbon Trust. We achieved this by engaging all our staff through training and awareness programs, actively monitoring and managing energy use, and making significant investments in energy efficient designs, plant and equipment. These programs have raised significant interest from our stakeholders who seek to benefit from similar initiatives to achieve energy savings. We work with our customers to help them reduce their environmental impact by providing waste cooking oil, cardboard and plastic recycling service.
Going forward, we will continue our ambitious plan to improve efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint by a further 10% in the next three years and contribute to the global effort to reduce the impact on the climate.”