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“The workshop has certainly opened my eyes into the hidden costs with regards to our utilities.”
Glenn Carter, Ingenious Design, Eastbourne
Energy Saving Per Cow!
The Woodhorn Group, near Chichester, operates a 1500 acre organic arable and dairy farm, a green and wood waste recycling site and a business centre comprising offices and workshops. With such a range of activities, the company implements an Environmental Management System (EMS) to help them identify, manage and improve their environmental impacts.
Measuring utility usage is a key part of their EMS. Co-ordinated by Environment Manager Bill Newell, regular water, electricity and diesel meter readings are recorded. Bill explains the benefits, “Tracking usage helps us budget more accurately, set targets and spot irregularities. By reading our water meter, we recently found we had a leak. Had this gone unnoticed until our next bill it would have cost an additional £1,200.”
Monitoring consumption also highlighted the milk cooling unit as a significant water user. A recycling system was installed to collect the wastewater to wash the yard, saving 2,500 litres and £1,600 per year. To reduce energy usage, lighting in the office, farm buildings and business centre was upgraded from T8 fluorescent tubes to more efficient high-frequency T5 tubes, annually saving over 20,000 kWh of electricity, 10 tonnes of CO2 emissions and £2,000. The project will pay for itself in less than three years.
Employees are trained to switch off lighting and IT equipment in the office and tractors and machinery on the farm when not in use. Sensors are installed to automatically switch off lighting in the dairy buildings when neither employee nor cow is present. Timers were fitted to control the office water heater and the system temperature turned down by 10ºC.
Bill feeds back to employees the results of their efforts in a format relevant to the company’s business activities. For example, energy usage at the dairy is benchmarked against the number of cows! The Woodhorn Group have achieved Silver level of the STEM EMS accreditation scheme and are working towards the British Standard BS8555.
Bill attended a free UTILISE Workshop run by the Sustainable Business Partnership. UTILISE helps businesses save money by reducing energy, water and waste. Contact for details.