 Carbon Trust Sweet smell of success
July 26th 2006 Well known chocolate and confectionary manufacturer Cadbury Trebor Bassett, has tenmanufacturing sites in the UK with a combined energy bill of more than 16 million.Cadbury's has committed to reducing carbon emissions by 10% within the next tenyears.Therefore group energy manager,Tony Spencer, sought advice from the CarbonTrust on how to achieve the target
Cadbury Trebor Bassett was particularly keen toimprove the efficiency of its compressed airsystems at each of its ten manufacturing sites.Between October 2003 and January 2004, an initialreview of the sites was carried out followed by adetailed assessment and analysis of the compressed airsystems. These surveys helped Cadbury's to identifywhere they could make savings and helped them tocreate a structure through which they could benchmarkfuture performance.
As a result, Cadbury Trebor Bassett was able to implementrecommendations such as introducing a new cost-effectiveenergy management system at the Sheffield site that hassignificantly reduced the compressed air generation costs.Results were benchmarked and continue to be monitoredand assessed as manufacturing demands vary. Themethodology adopted has been so successful that Cadbury'splan to extend the practice to its nine other UK sites andpotentially, across Europe. As a result of working with theCarbon Trust, 90 000 of potential savings has been identifiedand more than 30 000 has already been saved.
Tony Spencer, group energy manager at Cadbury TreborBassett said, "We knew our compressed air systems weregood, but we've been surprised at the savings we've beenable to make, and more importantly demonstrate, for a lowupfront cost. Through the Carbon Trust, we've been able toaccess the funding and advice we needed. We now believewe will be able to cut our carbon emissions by 10% as a directresult of this survey."
Dr Garry Felgate, director of delivery and external relationsat the Carbon Trust said, "Without help from expertconsultants it can be difficult to recognise the hidden costs ofenergy but many businesses, like Cadbury Trebor Bassett,have found they can save thousands through properlyanalysing their usage. Some of the greatest savings can bemade through better management of compressed air andCadbury's is a great example of this. We would encourage anybusiness who hasn't contacted us already to do so to see howmuch they could save."
B U L L E T I N Compressed air checklist - Raise awareness. Make sure that everyone knows the high cost of producing compressed air. Continue to remind people that leaks cost money.
- Find all leaks and fix them as soon as possible.
- Ask searching questions. Is your compressor bigger than it needs to be? Can you reduce the scale and capacity of your system?
- Can you lower the pressure? Don't compress air to pressures higher than is really necessary. Check the requirements of your equipment and tools; set the system pressure to the minimum needed.
- Turn compressors off. Leaving compressors running when they are not required, such as during breaks, is just throwing money away.
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