In September, the British Standards Institution (BSI) announced that world leading air filtration manufacturer, Camfil Farr, became the first company to join its recently launched Kitemark scheme for Energy Reduction Verification (ERV). The scheme independently verifies and certifies those organisations that achieve a reduction in carbon emissions through lower energy use. The ERV Kitemark also acts as an early action metric for CRC.
At the Energy Solutions Expo (London Olympia) in October, Andrew Morris (Business Development Director) of BSI presented Bill Wilkinson (MD) of Camfil Farr with the Energy Management Verification Certificate. At the show, Bill demonstrated the methods that Camfil Farr used which enabled them to achieve BS EN 16001 and the Journey to the ERV Kitemark - at the Energy Academy as part of the ‘Sustainable Strategies’ programme.
Watch the presentation below:
Camfil Farr – ERV Kitemark success - Flying the Kitemark for Energy Saving
To view the second part of the Energy Saving presentation, click here.
The videos are both available on YouTube and on Camfil Farr’s blog www.lowenergyairfilter.co.uk
Read the Camfil Farr Case Study and find out how Camfil Farr became the first company to achieve BSI’s Energy Reduction Verification (ERV) Kitemark scheme.
With its UK headquarters in Haslingden, Lancashire, Camfil Farr has a reputation for promoting the efficient use of energy and has demonstrated that air filters directly influence energy consumption within the air handling units which heat, cool and clean the air in air conditioning systems. The company aims to educate property managers and owners about the substantial benefits of replacing existing filtration assets with low energy air filters. Camfil, the world leader in the production and development of air filters, became the first manufacturing company in the UK to be awarded BSI’s Energy Management Standard BS EN 16001 in July 2010.
As a manufacturing and service orientated business, Camfil Farr took the opportunity to examine its own current and future energy usage. In light of rising and unstable energy costs, increasing legislation and the government’s policy of driving energy consumption reduction, the company wanted to do as much as it could to demonstrate social responsibility while helping its employees, suppliers and customers to learn how to reduce energy and save money.
Bill Wilkinson, Camfil Farr Managing Director commented:
“Although we are not a huge energy consumer, the total savings achieved were remarkable. In the first year (2008) we achieved a saving of over 22% of our total energy bill and in the verification year (2009) a further 14.6%. This represented an annual saving of nearly £200,000 from an energy bill which exceeded £500,000 in 2007.”
Bill Wilkinson continues:
“Camfil have always been energy aware, this awareness is an integral part of our culture and our operations. We have already had a lean management culture”.
When asked what advice he would give to other companies seeking to join the scheme, Wilkinson said:
“Simply doing nothing is just not acceptable, but as we found out, by implementing a company-wide Employee Engagement Scheme, every employee contributed to the substantial energy savings that we made”.
Employee Engagement
Camfil’s Energy Reduction Employee Engagement Scheme is known as CEASE (Camfil Energy Awareness Saves Environment). This scheme was first implemented in 2007. The scheme rewards employees with bonuses related to their contribution to energy reduction. They also introduced an employee suggestion system during their Sustainability Week in 2009. Out of 147 suggestions in the Sustainability Week activity, 74 were acted on immediately (known internally as :Just DO It’s – JDI’s). Other benefits that Camfil enjoyed from the Employee Engagement Scheme include significant behavioural change both at work and at home, and positive attitudes across the company.
BSI Assistance
“The help received from BSI to formalise our Energy Management system was invaluable”. Says Wilkinson. “The Kitemark scheme was engaged immediately, so the absolute “proof” was achieved and is now in the public domain”.
Unlike other schemes, BSI’s ERV Kitemark scheme has been designed specifically with CRC requirements in mind and therefore requires that only greenhouse gas emissions from energy use are taken into account. This allows organisations to focus solely on their energy emissions rather than having carbon resulting from transport and other sources complicate any measurements.
The Environment Agency has also approved the scheme as a CRC Early Action Metric that organisations may adopt to demonstrate carbon reductions. In fact, it is the only scheme to be based on the implementation of an energy management system – BS EN16001 – which demands more of organisations in that continual improvement and ongoing identification of energy reduction opportunities is required. Camfil Farr were also the first UK Manufacturing company to achieve the BS EN 16001 energy management standard in July 2010.
With the BSI Kitemark recognised and trusted by over 82 per cent of the UK population, the ERV Kitemark scheme provides a comprehensive alternative to both the Carbon Trust and CEMAR standards, which do not provide a BS EN 16001 based system around which long-term reductions can be identified, managed and realised.
After being approved for the ERV Kitemark pilot scheme Camfil Farr was audited by BSI to assess its use of energy. Although many of the energy reduction mechanisms required were already in place, mainly due to the company working to EN14001 with BSI for 10 years, the company reviewed certain aspects of its operations and corrected its existing data collection activities. It also undertook a pre-audit, and identified areas of non-conformance set out in the action plan and rectified them. The transition to the ERV Kitemark was smooth and was completed less than six months after joining the pilot scheme.
Commenting on the impact the ERV Kitemark scheme has made on the company, Camfil Farr’s Managing Director, Bill Wilkinson, said:
“The ERV Kitemark is an externally recognised verification that we have saved over 14 per cent on energy in the current compliance year and also demonstrates to our stakeholders that we practice what we preach. BSI has put us on the map and verified our system in a very short space of time”.