The Stewart Company and the Carbon Trust

  The Stewart Company reduces energy consumption.

  In its drive for greater manufacturing efficiencies The Stewart Company have greatly reduced their energy consumption while shedding 926 tonnes of CO₂ a year from the company's carbon footprint. Helped by Carbon Trust loans, The Stewart Company has installed a new chiller system and three new injection moulding machines.

The Stewart Company is a long-established business, manufacturing plastic garden and catering products. It supplies UK DIY and garden centres with pots and planters amongst other things, and wholesalers and cash and carry outlets with food storage and preparation products.   

After a management buy out in 2003, Lee Mowle, Managing Director and owner was keen to replace the older equipment he found himself with which was slow, inefficient, energy intensive and expensive to maintain. 

 Lee explains, "The investment in new machinery is part of a bigger programme to modernise the entire business and become more efficient - you could almost see the lights of Croydon dim when we powered up in the morning! While talking to a supplier, I found out that some of the equipment I was considering might be eligible for one of the Carbon Trust's energy efficiency loans." 

 Stewart went on to apply for three interest-free business loans to replace a cooling system on the roof and a number of the older injection moulding machines. As a result, the company has cut energy consumption by around 1 million kWh annually - from a site that was using around 7 million kWh a year. 

 Lee continues, "The Carbon Trust loans helped kick-start the replacement process. It meant we could get on with the project, six to 12 months earlier than we would have done had we dealt with the bank. The Carbon Trust came up with a calculation that equates our repayment plan to our monthly energy savings."

 During production, hot molten plastic is injected under high pressure into a mould, which needs cooling so that it sets and the resulting product can be removed. The company's existing cooling system and towers were more than 20 years old and very inefficient. The first loan replaced these with a centralised, high energy efficiency cooler system to deliver chilled water to the injection moulding machines.  

 Getting more from machinery

A further two loans were used to replace three 25 year-old injection moulding machines - one 650 tonne and two 280 tonne units - with new models featuring energy-saving hydraulic systems.

 "The new machines are far more energy efficient," Lee concludes. "Though our business has grown by around 8% from a turnover perspective, our energy costs are down by 13%. This means we're making savings at a time when energy prices are going up. The new machines are also 20-25% faster so the cost of our products come down, helping us stay competitive. Also, the garden market is very seasonal; you have to be able to react to the weather and supply product to the shelves for those few sunny weekends per year."