Environmental practices are cutting costs not adding expense

The Bury Black Pudding Company, which manufactures one of North West England's most famous speciality foods, is looking to boost its profits through implementing a raft of environmental efficiency measures.

The company is now in the process of cutting both costs and carbon emissions after working with Groundwork. This environmental organisation, whose team of experts advise businesses on sustainability matters, visited the firm’s factory in June 2011 to assess its manufacturing processes.

BACKGROUND

The Bury Black Pudding Company has had a stall on Bury Market for 48 years - a tradition which it continues to this day. In 2002, the management team decided that the time was right to expand the company and take its award-winning black puddings to a national audience. Over the past 6 years, it has grown organically and now supplies all the major supermarket chains as well as butchers, pubs and restaurants.

Today, the company has a £1m factory in the centre of Bury and turned over £2.7m in the year to April 2010, up from £1.8m the year before. In recent years, its products have gained a new following after becoming popular with celebrity chefs.

But as the company has grown, there has become an increased need to implement "best environmental practice" throughout its manufacturing process.

ACTON TO CUT CARBON EMISSIONS AND COSTS

Human resources manager Nikki Sinclair explained: "The Bury Black Pudding Company has always taken its commitment to the environment very seriously. We decided at the start of 2011 that we wanted to implement a series of procedures and policies which are geared towards using as little energy as possible - which is particularly important as our business continues to grow.”

The Bury Black Pudding Company was advised by Groundwork in July 2011 to implement a series of waste management measures which will improve its use of water, energy and other resources. Groundwork's team discovered that the company can recycle 90% of the water used in its packing machine.

Nikki continued: "As part of this process, we will be investing in a new water re-circulating system which is bespoke to the machines we use for packing products. What's more, we have identified a way to utilise the heat from compressors to heat the factory and offices instead of using a central heating system to try to reduce our carbon footprint even further."

In addition, Groundwork has advised The Bury Black Pudding Company to work with new recycling companies to maximize recycling opportunities for paper, cardboard and waste materials. Nikki added that Groundwork's consultation process had also been particularly effective in raising awareness of environmental practices among employees.

As she noted: "The team from Groundwork has been looking at what we do and how we do it which has also led directly to us investing in training our employees in areas of best environmental practice. We've now initiated a lean training course and an initiative to use staff to measure problems and suggest better, greener solutions at a staff representative committee.

"And we're also finding that there's a direct link between providing your team with training and motivating them. This consultation has proved to be very worthwhile on a number of different levels and, in the fullness of time, we expect to fully appreciate the business benefits these environmental initiatives bring."