FMC's Green Team set the standard

Fife’s FMC Technologies is setting new standards for environmental effi ciency that can become a benchmark for businesses across Fife.

Leading the way is the company’s Environmental Advisor, Sheena Johnston,

who is responsible for guiding her 650 colleagues at the company’s Dunfermline base towards achieving four ambitious environmental goals set in 2007 - to achieve zero waste to landfi ll; to source 12% of electricity from renewable energy; to reduce carbon emissions by 28% and to reduce water

use by 25% - all by the end of 2010.

Sheena has assembled a team of volunteers from departments across the business in the company’s Green Team whose remit is to educate other staff, encourage recycling and champion the values of sustainable practice.

The approach has delivered remarkable results with FMC now achieving a waste recycling rate of 98%.

Recycling manufacturing waste is well advanced at the company with a range of materials, like metals and baled cardboard, routinely collected and sold resulting in their own revenue stream. Wood waste is used in a biomass boiler for heating and all food waste from the canteen is composted.

“Managing offi ce waste is key to hitting the 100% recycling target,” says Sheena. “Recycling stations have been installed throughout the building and desk bins have been removed to encourage both recycling and further segregation of waste.

“But it’s not all serious,” she continues. “The Green Team has organised fun events for staff including a vegetable growing competition and a caption competition with the winning line, ‘Fantastic, it’s not plastic!’.”

Impressively the Green Team can point to very tangible cost savings that benefit the business. Switching off computers at night saves FMC a considerable sum of money per year for example and lighting is in the process

of being replaced to incorporate sensors.

In line with the company’s goal to source 12% of its electricity from renewable

energy, FMC has spent the past three years researching and assessing the feasibility of a wind turbine. The company was recently awarded planning permission to erect a 1.5 megawatt wind turbine at its Dunfermline site and work is due to be completed around the end of the year. Working with a partner

company, Wind Direct, which manages the process and owns the turbine, FMC will purchase approximately 40% of its electricity generated by wind power and in doing so will also cut its carbon emissions by around 30%.

WHAT NEXT?

As FMC moves towards the end of its three year schedule to make resource efficiencies, what is next for the company? There will still be a focus on effi ciencies like exploring how packaging on materials can be better

managed and a wider focus on sustainability throughout their supply chain, but there is also a new initiative.

Greenshoots, launched last year at the Offshore Oil and Gas Exhibition in

Aberdeen, encourages FMC customers to pay a carbon levy to offset the CO2 footprint of a Subsea Christmas Tree (for use in oil exploration) associated with its manufacture in Dunfermline. FMC also contributes to offset its business travel. The funds collected will be used to support local environmental projects such as renewable energy initiatives and energy effi ciency upgrades in housing.

From the company that the Sunday Times has called one of the ‘Best Companies to Work For in the UK’ it seems that the experience

and expertise in environmental sustainability could benefi t the whole community in future and sets a standard to which businesses

across Fife can aspire.

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Permalink: http://www.fifebusinessmatters.co.uk/articles/404561-fmcs-green-team-set-the-standard.html

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