Spiroflow achieves carbon neutral status from emissions reduction action
Leading bulk materials handling specialist, Spiroflow, has become one of the small percentage of UK manufacturing businesses to achieve carbon neutrality
– A status achieved by calculating a carbon footprint and reducing it to zero through a combination of in-house efficiency measures and supporting external emission reduction projects.
The company’s latest activity was a tree planting event held at Lancaster University’s Forrest Hills.Spiroflow was participating in Lancaster University’s ‘Forest of the Future’ initiative, an annual tree planting project held on university-owned land that provides the university and local SMEs with the opportunity to completely offset their carbon emissions for the year by planting a quantity of trees – the number depending on their carbon footprint.
In Spiroflow’s case, a total of 250 native trees including oak, aspen, beech and blackthorn were planted by a team of 10 employees, to offset 131 tonnes of carbon emitted by the company during 2019.
As a starting point in reducing its environmental impact, the company needed to understand its ‘carbon baseline’, i.e. its overall carbon impact. This was achieved by participating in a Low Carbon Innovation Forum run by Lancaster University’s Management School and working closely with specialists from the Making Carbon Work (MaCaW) project, an industry and academic collaboration, funded by the European Development Fund (ERDF) and supported by Boost – Lancashire’s business growth hub.
By quantifying their complete operation, the project was able to benchmark Spiroflow’s energy performance and calculate their annual carbon emissions.
“Once we fully understood what our carbon impact was, we were better placed to do something about it,” said Spiroflow’s development engineer, Craig Hollings. “The first step was a grass roots approach to make small changes; this included changing plastic cups in the canteen to water bottles for a more sustainable use, changing lighting over to LED, monitoring heating and increasing the recycling of cardboard waste.
The tree planting event has been a great way to achieve our goal of becoming carbon neutral and we are delighted to have secured agreements with landowners for future tree planting initiatives to last in excess of 50 years.”
Darren Axe, Lancaster University Students’ Union development manager (environmental sustainability), added:
“Earlier this year, Spiroflow looked at the possibility of getting involved in tree planting at Lancaster as part of the ‘Forest of the Future’ initiative. The aim was to trial a mechanism to assist Spiroflow with compensating for the annual carbon emissions associated with their operations.
Following some carbon accounting undertaken by Spiroflow, it was identified that Spiroflow would need to plant 250 trees in order to sequestrate (over the lifetime of the tree) the carbon associated with their emissions in 2019. This set the scene for a planting day at Forrest Hills on 23rd November – it was great to see all of these trees planted by the team at a very enjoyable Saturday session!”
Spiroflow has also focused on finding other ways of reducing their environmental impact. By optimising transport load plans, they have been able to reduce shipping costs and ultimately the amount of transport and fuel used in their supply chain.
Elsewhere, journeys made by sales managers in visiting customers was also reviewed and an augmented reality app was deployed to help reduce business mileage in this key area.
The ‘app’ means that sales managers now have the capability to facilitate an immersive experience for customers, similar to being in front of the company’s equipment, but without using the fuel to get to site.
In a separate initiative, Spiroflow is providing customers with an opportunity to reduce their own carbon emissions through its recently launched remote monitoring system called SAM.
As the system provides customers with full visibility of the energy consumption of their equipment, they are able to make fundamental changes to their processes to reduce their carbon impact where necessary.
Spiroflow designs powder handling systems, including specialised conveyors and bulk bag handling equipment for the food, chemical, minerals and other process industries.
Spiroflow also manufactures bin activators, Aero Mechanical Conveyors, Tubular Cable and Drag Chain Conveyors, Vacuum Conveyors, Bulk Bag Fillers, Ingredients Handling and Weighing Systems.
The company’s technical and engineering expertise has led to it developing
UK: 44 (0) 1200 422525
US: 1 704 246 0900
marketing@spiroflow.com
www.Spiroflow.com
Spiroflow Limited
- 01200 422525
- sales@spiroflow.com
- http://www.spiroflow.com
- Lincoln Way, Clitheroe, Lancashire, BB7 1QG GB
About us
Continuous product development allied to a thorough understanding of customers" process needs and objectives has kept Spiroflow at the forefront of the bulk handling industry since the mid 1970s. From our early beginnings supplying flexible screw conveyors, mainly to the plastics industry, Spiroflow is today one of the world"s leading manufacturers of a full range of equipment for handling dry bulk solids and ingredients in powder, granule, pellet and flake form, across the whole spectrum of process industries.
Commitment, quality, reliability and service Spiroflow conveying and weighing systems are in operation worldwide and are acclaimed for their outstanding versatility and prolonged working life in the most demanding environments. In food and pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and chemicals, minerals and plastics, Spiroflow"s experience and proven capability is providing the answer to every conceivable handling need. The leading design principles behind all Spiroflow equipment are: dust-free handling and hygienic operation.
Our range includes not only the latest automatic conveyor systems, but also fully compatible weighing equipment for a wide variety of applications, from batch processing of ingredients, to the filling and controlled emptying of bulk bags or sacks. Behind all Spiroflow products is a dedicated design, manufacturing, testing and installation facility, backed up by a rapid spares and service network. Our high standards are sustained through an on-going development programme utilising CAD design facilities and material testing procedures.
Our conveying and weighing systems are designed with a minimum of working parts for maximum reliability in operation. Simple to operate and easy to clean and maintain, their robust construction ensures a long working life with minimum downtime. Willingness to meet customer"s specific needs A cornerstone of our success is our eagerness to design and develop equipment to meet the needs of individual customers. Not only has this enabled our customers to operate in ways that best suit them, it has been the driving force behind our product range today. Our Engineers like nothing more than a challenge!
Where we supply to
Europe
Industries we supply to
Automation, Chemicals, Consultants, Components Electronics, Energy and Power, Food and Beverage, Glass Ceramics Cement, Metals and Minerals, OEM, Paper and Pulp, Pharmaceutical Cosmetics Toiletries, Plastics and Rubber, Recycling, Textiles, Tobacco, Water and Wastewater
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This is Spiroflow
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Meet SAM, (Spiroflow Active Monitoring) IIoT
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CTE Bulk Bag Filler
