As part of The Shropshire Group’s ongoing commitment to a carbon footprint reduction of 30 per cent by 2020, departmental “Green Champions” have been set up across the company's Cambridgeshire farming business to drive energy-saving initiatives.
With the aim of rolling out the scheme to the whole company and to incorporate the other farming businesses, the 10 Green Champions will meet every quarter to brainstorm new ideas and challenge others.
They will be set targets that will form a blue print of best practices to reduce energy consumption, waste and costs. The group will also form the Environmental Management System implementation team which has the aim of becoming ISO14001 accredited.
Lyndsey Rolfe, the farm’s environmental manager, who has been working on this particular project for the past 12 months, will be ‘championing the champions’, overseeing progress and be on hand to offer advice and encouragement.
“We want to engage everyone in the company, not just the senior management. Involvement and information is vital if we are to succeed, and ultimately it is down to everyone from directors through to tractor drivers and office staff to take on board these initiatives and implement them”.
Rolfe added: “Once we started looking at everyday tasks, we were surprised by the amount of quick wins. From fitting a switch that turns off workshop heaters, a cheap measure that saves huge quantities of fuel, to hippo blocks in toilet cisterns, to the potential of renewable energy sources - whatever the size, it all counts towards a greener way of working. Demonstrating to people that money, as well as resources, can be saved is surely the way to encourage continual improvement.”
Green Champions form part of The Shropshire Group’s Energy Reduction Team which is aiming for a 30 per cent reduction in company's carbon footprint by 2020.
Operating under the chairmanship of Steve West (group finance director) and Dr Ed Moorhouse (group technical director), it is a cross-functional management team which covers all business activities and has representation from operating sites across three production countries.
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