A family business in Horwich has secured £280,800 of sales, safeguarded 15 jobs and created a new full-time position, after achieving annual savings of £710,400 by making resource efficient improvements.
J Dickinson & Sons (Horwich) Ltd is a well established skip hire and construction waste management company. It has received on-site support for the last few years from an ENWORKS adviser at Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale.
Efficiency initiatives
An initial ENWORKS review looked at ways of using energy, fuel, water and material resources more efficiently, to save money, reduce carbon emissions, and help the company to become more sustainable.
Used construction materials are a key input for J Dickinson & Sons, and the ENWORKS adviser helped to secure a grant from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) to cover the purchase costs of new waste sorting and segregation equipment on site. The payback period was only 10 months.
This initial investment has allowed the company to save 4,800 tonnes of general waste and 19,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste from going to landfill each year. This, in turn, has saved over £673,300 on annual waste disposal costs.
Fuel is another key input. By reducing the amount of waste going to landfill from J Dickinson & Sons, the amount of diesel used in transportation to and from the landfill sites also fell significantly.
The new recycling procedures reduced the company’s annual mileage by 59,500 miles, saving over 33,400 litres of diesel and £37,100 per year, as well as 86 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
More in the pipeline
J Dickinson & Sons is now looking at opportunities for making its new equipment available to other local construction companies that want to improve their recycling rates.
It is also studying a range of additional recommendations from ENWORKS that could save another £10,200 a year.
These include organising fuel-efficient training for drivers, switching off computers overnight, replacing old lighting with energy-efficient fluorescent lamps, fitting sensors and timers to electrical equipment to control useage, and installing water-saving devices in washrooms.
'Less vulnerable'
Sue Dickinson, one of the company directors said: "As a result of the diversification of our business we have been better placed to manage in the current difficult economic climate.
"The new equipment has meant we can work with a wider range of clients and left us less vulnerable to the dip in the market that might otherwise have left us struggling to keep the business profitable. With ENWORKS support we’ve been able to position ourselves in a situation to forecast further improvements for the future."
The ongoing support from ENWORKS has helped J Dickinson & Sons to retain important sales contracts because of its stronger environmental credentials. This, in turn, has allowed it to safeguard 15 jobs that would otherwise have been at risk.
As a result of the cost savings that have been made, the company has also taken on an additional full-time employee and its sales volumes have grown because it has more capacity on site and can convert more of the waste it processes into products with a resale value.
Free support
Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale is a key member of the ENWORKS partnership, which supports businesses of any size or sector with boosting profitability by using environmental resources more efficiently.
Posted under Fuel Efficiency
and Waste Management
and Construction on 22 February 2012
