Green principles save firms €6m
The ‘Greening Your Business…how much can you save?” guide identifies saving achieved by SMEs in the last three years.
It contains case study guide to help other businesses to ‘go green’, with detailed insights on a combined saving of over €700,000 made by companies across various industries while working with Green Business.
Funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, Green Business is a free efficiency consultancy service that helps businesses reduce their costs, wastage and environmental footprint.
The guide shows how Kerry Foods, ABP Food Group, Slaney Foods, Sofrimar, and Ballon Meats implemented low cost and simple resource efficiencies.
“More and more businesses are seeing the value and huge potential benefits of managing resources such as water, energy and raw materials and this booklet aims to encourage other businesses to follow their lead,” said James Hogan, programme manager of Green Business.
“Small companies have as much to gain as large companies.”
The booklet includes La Trattoria restaurant in Cork which reduced it oil by by 33% by recovering heat from the kitchen.”
Mr Hogan said the booklet showcases some great examples of how companies, small and large, have improved their sustainability by reducing costs and reducing their environmental footprint through often no and low cost measures.
ABP Food Group, which has a turnover of €3bn, has achieved its target of zero waste to landfill for its six facilities in Ireland.
It reduced its water consumption by 45%, saving €150,000 per annum on water and energy, with a return on investment in just four months.
John Durkan, ABP group environmental and sustainability manager with ABP Food Group, said efficient use of resources makes business and moral sense.
“Our primary driver is a moral obligation to the environment given how reliant the agri-food environment is on keeping the environment pristine,” he said.
“We believe sustainability is one of the key areas where Irish products can differentiate themselves and achieve added credibility in international markets, and we’re very proud of the dedicated efforts we’ve taken to implement and maintain resource efficiencies.”
See: http://greenbusiness.ie/newsblog/
