Presentation
4th December 2013
by
Derek Doherty
Operations Director
Company Background
• Rich Sauces was founded in 1985 by Trevor Kells
• The business is privately owned
• We manufacture a broad range of the highest quality
mayonnaise, sauces, dressings and bouillons
• Our factory is located in Newtownards
• We supply customers in UK, Ireland, USA, Middle East &
Europe
“Every solution breeds new problems”
Arthur Bloch
Author, Murphy‘s Law
Do we need an Environmental Policy?
• Why does an SME need to have an environmental policy when we
have very little waste?
• We only have a few pallets of compacted waste going to landfill
every 4-5 weeks
• We attended a seminar in 2007 which highlighted the need to look
at waste streams entering the factory and the impact this had on
waste internally and externally
• Although at this stage we had no written policy we began our
environmental journey
Key Factors in our Policy
We assessed our energy and waste streams:
• Water – mains water
• Electricity – lighting / refrigeration
• Dry Waste – paper / cardboard / plastic / wood
• Wet Waste – wash water / waste product / effluent
• Train Staff – buy in and accountability
Water
•
•
Meter and measure water volumes
Reduce hose dimensions / attach guns to hoses, for example:
1” hose = 60lpm x 12hrs = 43,200L
¾” hose = 40lpm x 12hrs =28,800L
½” hose = 25lpm x 12hrs =18,800L
•
The operatives complained about reduced water pressure and increased wash down
time. We stated to operatives that this was are new policy and it will take longer
•
Reduce rinse cycles for CIP system (subsequent impact on hygiene results)
•
Staff awareness - turn off taps / never leave hoses running / attach guns to hoses at
all times
Electricity
• Measure where the electricity is going
• Explore market tariffs – are we on the right tariff
• Staff training: turn off lights, installation of PIR sensors for offices and factory,
and make people responsible for checking
• Power factor correction
• Refrigeration – update to inverter pack system
• Change lighting to energy efficient were practical – we have adopted a change
as they blow policy
• Inverters for motors over 2.2kw
Example
Outside security lights 22 x 400w x 10hours = £4818 per annum
Change to 125w led 22 x 125w x 10hours = £1505
Dry Waste
How do we separate our waste which is currently going to compactor/landfill?
•
•
•
•
•
Cardboard - 7 Tonne per annum
Plastic – ½ Tonne
Metal – 2 Tonne
Secondary plastic – 1 Tonne
General waste – 8 Tonne
The benefit from separating this waste is that we now have an income from
this waste stream, we have reduced our landfill costs by 50%
Wet Waste / Effluent
•
•
Meter the WTP and assess overall volume
What can we take out at source – start up and final production 300-500lpw - this is
recycled by a 3rd party for bio-diesel
Example:
• 2008 WTP cost £53,000 per annum
• Investment £65,000
• Target figure £30,000
• Payback 34 months
• Review annually to improve
• 2014 approx spend £22,000
Possibilities to reduce this further:
• Anaerobic digestion / de-watering system / composting
How Stem Continue to Add Value
• After all this hard work the company can consider itself to be
Environmental experts…or so we thought.
• Stem contacted Rich Sauces in December 2012 to assess our EMS
and conduct a free audit with a view to completing ISO 14001
• We soon realised that although we were committed on the practical
aspects we had no written policy with no real targets or aspirations
How Stem Continue to Add Value
• With Stem’s help we started to build an Environmental Management
System which would compliment our previous endeavours.
• We achieved our accreditation on 1st August 2013, 8 months after
being introduced to Stem.
• We have benefited from their experience and networking forums
which has allowed us to explore other revenue streams whilst
meeting our targets and obligations.
• By using the sustainable plan which Stem have provided we will
continue to learn and develop our Environmental strategy