Harper Collins Publishers Limited turns the page
A focus on paper, people and packaging helped Harper Collins Publishers Limited turn to a new page in their own story when the actions they took on resource efficiency resulted in both financial and environmental benefits. These benefits include: packaging purchase cost savings of over £100,000/year; labour cost savings of over £30,000/year; postal cost savings of £12,000/year; cardboard packaging reduced by 172 tonnes/year; and reduced cost of compliance with packaging waste regulations.
The company engaged with the Envirowise Eco-Design project, and was able to analyse and find ways to save and improve at almost every stage. It focused its activities around two areas. Firstly, the business-to-business elements, which represented bulk flow distribution of huge numbers of books and publications to retailers. Then the business-to-consumer side, representing how the books were sold and reached the consumer. Within these areas they examined the whole packaging life cycle, looked at the best available techniques, found alternatives and reviewed distribution. By doing so they realised enormous financial benefits, as well as helping the environment.
Read the whole story by downloading the case study at http://www.envirowise.gov.uk/CS932
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Cooking up new ideas at Ginsters
Ginsters is a long established company which has been making its famous Cornish pasties for over 40 years. By working with Envirowise, Ginsters achieved a 30 % reduction in cardboard waste, 47% cost savings on cost waste, 27% waste to landfill per tonne of product, reduced its water consumption by 50% and lowered its gas consumption by 15%.
As a manufacturer, they also had the issues of packaging and waste – but even waste is a very specific issue for Ginsters, since the primary issue is waste pastry. Waste was the starting point when they signed up for an Envirowise Fast Track Waste visit. From that point onwards they began to monitor their factory processes and were able to realise greater benefits than they ever originally envisaged.
Every business is different. At the heart of the Ginsters business is the bakery, which turns out a significant 3.5 million baked products each week, using huge quantities of milk, eggs and butter. When they wanted to look at their resource use their consumption and management of these dairy products had to be one focus, although they had already started well by implementing a food-miles reduction and a policy of local sourcing.
To see more about how this major bakery business turned its resource efficiency into profit, you can view a video case study at
http://www.envirowise.gov.uk/uk/Our-Services/Video-Case-Studies.html
You can also download a written case study here http://www.envirowise.gov.uk/CS823