In 2020 Polypipe Building Products announced Our Energy Journey, our pledge to ensure a sustainable future by minimising the impact our manufacturing activities have on the environment.
Working to a framework of the environmental standard ISO 14001, whilst working towards the energy standard ISO 50001, we wanted to share some of the changes that we have made around our Broomhouse Lane site during the past year.
Introducing Electric Forklifts
One change that we have made is introducing electric forklift trucks to the EMA area at our Broomhouse Lane site. We now have 5 electric forklift trucks as part of our fleet, which run on green carbon neutral electricity and emit zero emissions.
A diesel forklift truck emits 10.52 tonnes CO2e per year, this is greater than running 2 family cars for a year. By removing 5 diesel forklifts from our fleet, we are saving 52.6 tonnes CO2e per year. That’s the equivalent of saving the emissions of 11 family cars per year.
We are also currently trialling an electric forklift truck at our Warmsworth site, where practical we will be switching other diesel forklift trucks at all sites over the next 5 years.
Not only do the electric forklifts lower our carbon emissions on site, but they also lower our noise emissions too. The electric forklifts are almost silent in comparison to their predecessors, which means that our neighbours are much happier too.
Moulding Machines
In our moulding department, a number of changes have been made such as replacing machines with updated versions that can make two products at once, cutting production times and increasing the volume of products made.
In 2021 alone, 6 machines were replaced within the department to improve energy and production outputs. The team are also looking at other machine investments that will have a positive impact on energy and product outputs so that the moulding department are constantly working with the best equipment for the job, and for the environment.