Lowering the environmental impact of Frozen Food Store
Frozen Food Store is a food delivery service based in South East London. The company has been operating for over 20 years, supplying the catering sector in the South of England with frozen food products. Awareness of the environmental impact of their activities has encouraged Frozen Food Store to continuously look for greater efficiency in their operations.
Environmental policy
The company have implemented several environmental practices as part of their strategy to lower their environmental impact, save money and promote corporate social responsibility. These include:
- Reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill (by streaming card and paper in to separate collections)
- Monitoring of electricity use
- Checks on machinery efficiency
- Reduction of vehicle miles
- Recycling
- Use of water saving devices
- Staff education
- Maximising transport routes for greater fuel efficiency
- Reducing the number of non essential deliveries to customers (customers receive deliveries in a more reliable time window in return for restricting the days on which deliveries are made)
- Reducing errors and duplication of activity
The company has established an environmental benchmark using electricity and stationery bills from previous years, along with details of transport usage and amount of waste sent to landfill. This allows them to monitor their progress against past performance and determine where improvements have been made.
What savings have they made?
The changes made have resulted in the following approximate savings:
- A saving of £1200 per annum on waste collection. In this area the company reduced waste into general waste bins by 75%. This was achieved by streaming card and paper into separate collections. (The savings are net of the additional cost for recycling card and paper)
- A saving of £3000 per annum on fuel consumption, by reducing delivery journey miles and maximising transport routes and delivery efficiency.
Frozen Food Store have implemented an organisational system focused on getting deliveries right the first time. This drive for efficiency has reduced overall expenditure and improved the reliability of their service to customers. The sole expenditure incurred has been the installation of specialist equipment to the company’s cold store compressors with a total cost of £3250.
What do they plan to do in the future?
There is no set strategy or budget for further improvements; the company reviews their activity and makes decisions based on each specific area. The following actions are planned for 2011:
- Install energy efficient lighting in the office
- To encourage employees to car share, or use public transport/bicycles for travel to and from work
- Looking at ways to reduce power consumption on computers when not in use and reconfiguring the network to reduce the number of machines on overnight standby
What support did they receive?
Initial support came in the form of a loan from the Carbon Trust, which funded the installation of specialist equipment to the company’s cold store compressors.
The company also received support and advice from other external organisations including
Frozen Food Store were helped by the commercial firm
This information enabled Frozen Food Ltd to apply for the Carbon Trust loan. The equipment was then installed by Shield Environmental.
Environmental Achievements
Frozen Food Store have saved money and improved efficiency by focusing on their environmental performance, especially in the areas of waste reduction. They have found that this approach has made it easier to engage their employees and drive continual improvements in working practice.
The company has also found that a commitment to improving environmental performance is a marketing tool that may differentiate the company from other competitors.
Visit http://www.frozen.co.uk/.
