Scottish Enterprise, along with other bodies such as Carbon Trust and Zero Waste Scotland can help all Scottish companies to improve their productivity and bottom line through programmes such as LEAN management, EMI, the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service, and Leadership Development.
Through LEAN management, for example Scottish Enterprise has worked with over 300 companies to generate in excess of £30m of business improvements. The programme gives companies the opportunity to benchmark their processes with Scottish businesses across all sectors and provide the framework for inter-company learning.
There are a number of good case studies of Scottish based companies who have engaged in low carbon business planning.
Malcolm Group reduced water usage by installing mains-fed water coolers = £2000 per annum payback after initial investment
Barclays Wealth Glasgow office reduced paper usage from 6.8m sheets p/a to 3.5m by duplex printing = £56k savings per annum.
With 12 sites and 640 employees across the country, Univar’s annual energy bills had reached £500,000 by 2005. Since then, as a result of Carbon Trust recommendations, it has cut its annual CO2 emissions by over a fifth and made similar financial savings.
Kingsmill invested in more fuel efficient lorries using diesel additives which produce fewer emissions. In the supply chain, Kingsmill has worked with its flour supplier. They now use rail transport instead of lorries to deliver flour to their bakeries in Glasgow and Cardiff reducing their road travel by 500,000 miles per year.
Capita set itself a target to reduce emissions by 12% across its top 20 energy consuming sites. These were collectively responsible for the use of £3.5 million worth of energy each year and an annual footprint of 18,400 tonnes of CO2. Emissions have now been cut by 28%, a reduction of 4,400 tonnes.
For further information, guidance and support on low carbon business opportunities, please contact John.J.Crawford@scotent.co.uk.