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September 2010 - Hydrasun student wins regional Environmental Placement Programme Award

During the summer of 2010 and in line with our commitment to seek progressive ways to reduce our overall impact on the environment, Hydrasun signed up to the Environmental Placement Programme, run by the Business Environment Partnership in Scotland.

The overall aim of the Environmental Placement Programme is to improve environmental practice within Scottish businesses. The programme offers work experience opportunities for students by linking them with host companies to undertake environmental projects to help companies realise cost savings associated with improved environmental management.

Hydrasun employed Alex Reid who had just completed her degree course in Sustainable Development at the University of St Andrews. The objective of Alex's placement was to identify new and innovative ways to reduce and if possible eliminate the use of packaging, both in terms of how suppliers package incoming goods and how Hydrasun goods are packaged to go on to the market.

Over an 8 week period Alex identified a number of ways that Hydrasun could reuse or recycle packaging, which would deliver a reduction of 8.8 tonnes of packaging material per year and an annual cost saving of £20.2k. Specific areas of waste elimination identified included:

  • The reduction in size of polythene bags used to package Hydrasun fittings. Cost saving £8.6k
  • Reduction of labels printed to accompany fittings despatched. Projected saving of 70,000 labels per year
  • Installation of a Cardboard baler within Hydrasun new Head Quarters to improve efficiency of cardboard recycling. This will be installed during the relocation to our new site in December 2010.
  • The introduction of a new scheme to offer waste wood free of charge to employees for use in burning stoves or open fires.
  • The introduction of proactive recycling for waste hose, paper, cans and plastic and composting for food waste to be implemented within new Head Quarters in December 2010, leading to the diversion of the majority of current 'general waste' from landfill.

At the Regional Awards Ceremony, Alex presented her findings and won first place, securing her place at the National Finals during September 2010. In response to Alex's success Bob McAlpine, Chief Operating Officer of Hydrasun commented 'Winning the Regional Final is not only a well deserved recognition for Alex, but a reflection of the commitment of the entire Hydrasun team towards improving our performance in this vital area.'

Hydrasun is delighted to have been part of the Environmental Placement Programme. We believe the opportunity to seek new ways to improve our overall environmental performance is a key business obligation and underpins our environmental policy. Our ISO 14001 accreditation, our Shanks ranking as a top 3 company within the North East committed to recycling and, being first in Aberdeenshire to submit a Green Travel Plan for staff further demonstrates our commitment in this area.