14th November 2013, Thursday 10am
By TheCork.ie
news@TheCork.ie
Green Business, one of the flagship programmes of the National Waste Prevention Scheme, has teamed up with IBEC, Enterprise Ireland and BIM, to host a series of seminars on Resource Efficiency, this November.
These seminars – one of which is taking place today in the SilverSprings Hotel in Cork – will demonstrate how easy it is to improve resource efficiency in business, by asking a number of businesses to show other businesses like yours, what they have done.
The risings costs of materials, energy and water can have a significant impact on the profitability of any business. Through working with Green Business, efforts made by businesses to optimise the use of resources, while improving the efficiency of their processes have proved a win/win for both business and the environment, in every case.
A number of examples include;
Bewleys Tea and Coffee Facility has progressively implemented energy efficiency improvements, with the result that the plant now uses 40% less energy for every bag of coffee produced!
Freshway’s sandwiches saved €15,000 per year by selling waste bread crusts to a bread crumb manufacturer. Originally they were composting these crusts at a cost to the company!
The Irish Dairy Board offices in Dublin has reduced its heating costs by €16,000 per year by switching their oil boiler to a new gas boiler. The new boiler will have paid for itself in 3 years.
CG Power Systems Ireland, in Cavan, has reduced its gas bill by €200,000 per year by re-using waste heat from a painting oven to provide space heating for the facility.
Mohamed Hamoud from Heinz in Dundalk, will talk about conservation of packaging and outline how his company re-uses cardboard packaging in the distribution of food products.
John Durcan from Anglo Beef Processors will discuss Water Stewardship in the Anglo Beef Group in Ireland and the UK. Measures they used to manage water include process efficiency measures, water reuse and rainwater harvesting.
Sandra Hennessy – BIM – Green Seafood Business programme will discuss the need for Seafood Processing sector to reduce the inputs of water, energy and packaging and thus supporting a positive environmental profile for the seafood business.
John Lynch, Environmental specialist with Janssen Pharmaceuticals will speak to other businesses about the importance of Environmental sustainability and product stewardship for Johnson and Johnson.