Efficiency
Plymouth’s manufacturers are urging more companies to sign up to a group which promotes efficient production methods to bring environmental and financial benefits. The Plymouth Manufacturers’ Group is calling on more city businesses to join Devon’s first Resource Efficiency Club.
Set up a year ago with more than £50,000 of public funding, the REC’s 11 founding members have made £500,000 worth of savings between them.
Due to the huge success of the environmental scheme, it has been announced that the project will now be funded for a further year, extending its work into 2008.
On Wednesday the University of Plymouth will host the first in a series of events designed to attract more interest in the city’s REC membership. It will be held on Wednesday from 5.30pm until 8pm in the Robbins Conference Centre.
The REC aims to tap into the far- reaching and long-term benefits created from efficiency savings in energy, waste, raw materials and other means of managing utility costs.
Patrick O’Connell, chairman of the PMG and director of the Bandvulc Group, said: “We believe that a successful and profitable business can be a responsible one too.
“There are considerable achievements to be made in resource efficiency, which for us have delivered some really tangible business benefits.
“This event will give local businesses a grounding in the support and expertise available - such as local Resource Efficiency Clubs and the University of Plymouth’s Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, which have had a positive impact on Bandvulc’s successes.”
The Government-funded Envirowise organisation provides the cash for the REC and environmental project management company Abricon the training.
The benefits of signing up to the programme of systematic improvement in resource utilisation have been huge to those manufacturing and engineering companies involved.
They include increased profitability and employment opportunities, a reduction in operating costs and significant cuts in environmental pollution.
The additional REC funding provides a further 12-month programme which will involve a combination of online guidance, regular workshops and expert briefings.
These focus on best practice techniques, the sharing of local knowledge and implementing change in order to reduce each member’s ‘carbon footprint’.
Sponsored by Abricon and free to attend, Wednesday’s event aims to demonstrate how city businesses are achieving sustainable development through environmental management, resource efficiency and knowledge transfer.
The event will be chaired by Phil Hughes from the Institute of Directors’ Devon and Cornwall Branch.
Speakers will include Alasdair Brown from the South West Regional Development Agency, Eric Banks from Envirowise, Joe Reynolds from Abricon and Richard Shepherd from the University of Plymouth.
Topics under discussion will include funding opportunities, the ability to get access to university expertise and how to use resource efficiency as an essential environmental management tool.
Bandvulc Ltd, based in Lee Mill, and Becton Dickinson, based at Roborough, will demonstrate two success stories from Plymouth’s REC.
RECs are based on the waste minimisation clubs encouraged in the UK in the early 1990s.
The Plymouth Resource Efficiency Club is the second to be set up in Devon and Cornwall.
It currently comprises the Bandvulc Group, Fine Tubes, Rittal, Barden, BD, Algram, Arjo Wiggins, DML, Gleason, Kawasaki, Hellermann Tyton, with the remaining Plymouth Manufacturers’ Group members being urged to join.