News

12th January

In conjunction with the Carbon Trust, UKWA has embarked on a joint project to develop an ‘emissions reduction’ toolkit for the warehousing industry. This is a very important project that will bring provide UKWA members with direct financial benefits. As an example, UKWA member Maxim Logistics, eager to cut costs and reduce its carbon footprint, called in the Carbon Trust to carry out an on-site carbon survey to identify potential savings.

The survey highlighted that warehouse lighting accounted for 93% of the company’s annual energy spend and after careful investigation, the company applied for an interest-free Energy Efficiency Loan from the Carbon Trust. It received £44,400 towards the new lighting, which cost just over £60,000. The company’s energy costs for November 2008, the first full month with the new lighting, were £1,850 lower than those of November 2007. Thanks to its expected monthly savings and reduced maintenance costs, Maxim Logistics Group Ltd will have paid off the loan in under two years. (Source. The Carbon Trust)

Outline programme

Seek willing volunteers to undergo a free on-site survey, and brief them at a pre-survey workshop to be run at Walter House in mid Jan 2010

Conduct the survey and produce written reports for participants by mid Feb 2010

Use the collected results to develop and produce guidance. The product will be an “emissions reduction” toolkit for the industry which is basically a “how to” guide on reducing emissions.

Run a series of workshops to disseminate the findings and explain the ‘toolkit’

Survey

Free on site surveys by environment consultants will be carried out at a variety of warehousing operations at 12 sites (3x small - up to 100K sq ft, 3 x medium – up to 500K sq ft, 3 x large – greater than 500Ksq ft, and 3 specialist (e.g. chill/cold store), and each participant will have a pre-survey briefing and receive a bespoke written report on completion.

Results

The results of the survey will be used to produce a bespoke emissions reduction toolkit for the benefit of all UKWA members, and presented at a number of post survey workshops, likely to take place during March 2010.

Volunteer companies

UKWA members willing to take part in this project should register their interest as soon a possible with Mick Davison at Walter House mdavison@ukwa.org.uk or by telephone 0n 020 7836 5522 as soon as possible.