Air filtration manufacturer Camfil Farr has become the first company to join the British Standards Institution's (BSI) recently launched Kitemark scheme for Energy Reduction Verification (ERV).
The scheme independently verifies and certifies those organisations that achieve a reduction in carbon emissions through lower energy use.
Camfil became the first manufacturing company in the UK to be awarded BSI's Energy Management Standard BS EN 16001 in July 2010.
Camfil Farr managing director Bill Wilkinson commented: 'Although we are not a huge energy consumer, the total savings achieved were remarkable. In the first year (2008) we achieved a saving of over 22 per cent of our total energy bill and in the verification year (2009) a further 14.6 per cent.
'This represented an annual saving of nearly £200,000 from an energy bill which exceeded £500,000 in 2007.'
Camfil's Energy Reduction Employee Engagement Scheme is known as CEASE (Camfil Energy Awareness Saves Environment). This scheme, first implemented in 2007, rewards employees with bonuses related to their contribution to energy reduction.
The company also introduced an employee suggestion system during their Sustainability Week in 2009. Of 147 suggestions in the Sustainability Week activity, 74 were acted on immediately (known internally as :Just DO It's - JDI's). Other benefits that Camfil enjoyed from the Employee Engagement Scheme include significant behavioural change both at work and at home, and positive attitudes across the company.
BSI's ERV Kitemark scheme has been designed specifically with CRC requirements in mind and therefore requires that only greenhouse gas emissions from energy use are taken into account. This allows organisations to focus solely on their energy emissions rather than having carbon resulting from transport and other sources complicate any measurements.
Mr Wilkinson, concluded: 'The ERV Kitemark is an externally recognised verification that we have saved over 14 per cent on energy in the current compliance year and also demonstrates to our stakeholders that we practice what we preach. BSI has put us on the map and verified our system in a very short space of time.'