J&A (International) Limited, Insignia House, Vale Road Industrial Estate, Spilsby, Lincolnshire, PE23 5HE. Telephone: +44 (0)1790 752757
Introduction
J&A (International) Ltd is committed to reducing its impact on the environment by taking steps to reduce direct and indirect pollution to land, air and water. J&A (International) Ltd commitment includes meeting and surpassing compliance with environmental regulations and legislation, managing environmental risk and minimising the indirect adverse environmental impacts of its activities. This includes maintaining its international recognised environmental standard of ISO 14001:2015.
Key environmental activities include:
1) Energy
2) Waste
3) Water
4) Carbon Footprint
1) Energy
J&A (International) Ltd installed solar generation on its roof during 2014. This produces 108kWh of generation for the site.
We only use green electricity generation for the rest of the power consumption which consists of 60% solar and 40% wind generation.
We reduced our overall consumption last year by 2% even though our manufacturing output was increased.
All the lighting on the site has been replaced with LED lighting. This has reduced power consumption.
Investments in new machinery also bring lower energy consumption, better efficiency and increased reliability. There has been good investment in machinery over the past few years, which is continuing.
Daily we are making sure equipment is switched off if it is not in use. It is a member of staff job role to make sure this is completed each day.
This is all in conjunction with energy awareness which all members of our staff undertake when they start with the company and continues with newsletters, meetings, training and staff appraisals.
2) Waste
We managed to reduce our waste last year by looking at ways to improve the nesting of work and making the most of the materials we are using. We have managed to automate a lot of the tasks which use to be manually performed.
From the waste produced by the site, we had 88.5% of the general waste diverted from landfill and recovered.
Our recycling and segregation on site has also increased and we are always looking at new avenues to recycle products we are currently wasting and not able to recycle. This is expanding at the moment to include Foamex, Corex, Dibond and banner materials that we use.
Currently, we are looking at ways to reduce all of our one-use plastics. This is starting with our packaging, and involves;
a) Replacing plastic bags for biodegradable ones. b) Replacing plastic tape for impulse sealers. c) Swapping jiffy bubble bags for compostable brown paper bags. d) Replacing brown vinyl tapes for paper tapes.
This does come with an extra cost element but the company feel it is the best way to help the environment.
We are also looking at reducing our overprints and recording our errors more efficiently. This will reduce waste, not only for the product, but the energy used to make it and if it is not needed to dispose of it.
3) Water
We have improved our water pollution COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) from an average of 15,000mg/l to an average of 800 mg/l.
We have removed any traces of heavy metals and silver from it.
Improved machinery which filters the water and process improvements has also reduced our annual consumption.
Further improvements in our production processes will also improve our water quality dramatically which we are working on this year.
4) Carbon Footprint
We measure our carbon emissions annually in line with our site permit. Last year saw the best ever emissions from our plant on record. This is due to regular servicing of our machinery, improved balanced airflow in our production areas, and working on printing areas and products that we use.
Our solvent management plan shows an improvement in the use and consumption of chemicals. This is also with an increase in manufacture.
We are currently looking at printing products with 0% VOC which will reduce our carbon footprint even further.
We also review our carbon emissions from vehicles on the road. We are currently investing in hybrid cars, which are also reducing our impacts.
Summary
It is J&A (International) Ltd's intention by using its objectives and targets to reduce its impact on the environment. We will be launching more eco-friendly products during the year to help reduce the impact and help to recover valuable resources.