Highlights
- Accredited to ISO 14001, ISO 50001 and the Carbon Trust Standard.
- Their Solar PV System supplied 60% of their electricity needs in the first year.
- Reduced grid electricity demand by 18,600kWh in 2012/13.
- Exported 21,735 kWh of low carbon electricity back to the grid.
- Estimated energy saving is 3,640kWh (1.9 TCO2e) through roof insulation and LED lighting.
- Carbon emissions fell by 34% (26.7 TCO2e) to 51.6 TCO2e.
- Efficient driver training helped to achieve an 18% rise in fuel economy saving 2,950 litres and 7.6 TCO2e.
- Economic benefits of over £21,000 representing approximately 2.5% of turnover.
- Employ an environmental/energy management specialist.
Grange Door Systems, based in Edinburgh, manufactures, supplies and installs all types of industrial doors, roller shutters, sliding doors, loading bay doors, fire doors, fire rolling doors, automatic doors, gates and barriers.
The VIBES Energy Award recognises businesses that contribute to reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions in Scotland. This category is aimed at businesses that have significantly reduced energy consumption within their own organisation or through providing a service, developing an energy saving product or through working in partnership with others. The VIBES Judges felt that Grange Door Systems was a fantastic example of a small company committed to reducing their environmental impact.
Grange Door Systems are a small business clearly committed to improving their environmental performance. This commitment is effectively evidenced by staff engagement, advertising to clients through their website, promotional materials and on site. VIBES Judges were impressed that although a small company, they employ a dedicated member of staff specifically for environmental/energy management and the judges felt that this sends a very strong message to clients and others in the industry.
The VIBES Judges felt that Grange Door Systems have integrated environmental and energy performance as a core strategy for the business and despite the challenging economic climate they have invested time and funds to progress their energy strategy. This has worked well for them, resulting in reduced carbon emissions, energy savings of 3,640kWh per annum and an 18% rise in fuel economy.
The company has made several changes within the business including improving insulation, replacing lighting with LED’s and installing Solar PVs. The changes have resulted in savings for the company of over £21,000 largely from the Solar PVs. They also monitor their energy closely through measures such as setting energy performance indicators, weekly meter readings and calculations of onsite consumption of solar PV electricity.
Grange Door Systems make sure their employees are committed to the environmental aims of the business by ensuring their roles and commitments are clear and investing in employee training to encourage best practice and efficient vehicle driving techniques. The company has also focused on improving their monitoring to engage staff with behavioural change initiatives, to achieve ISO 50001 and to support the business case for the solar PV.
Their primary objective for developing their energy management system is to reduce data entry time, and automate analysis. This approach has enabled them to understand in detail the performance of their solar PV system and progress against energy performance indicators without unnecessary administrative time.
In the future, the company plans to build on their existing energy management approaches by replacing their existing heating with a biomass system, replacing the existing company van with an electric vehicle and continuing to build on their Carbon reporting. It was clear to the VIBES Judges that Grange Door Systems was a small company committed to improving their energy performance and impacts and they felt this should be recognised with a Special Commendation.