Project Overview
“Marshalls saved over 25% on their energy and heating bills across all three sites”
As the UK’s leading manufacturer of natural stone and concrete landscaping products, Marshalls PLC wanted to reduce its carbon footprint and energy costs at its nationwide manufacturing sites. The company had already implemented several initiatives under its ISO 50001 continuous improvement strategy and wanted to make further improvements.
Richard Capper MEI, Group Carbon & Energy Manager, enlisted Clark Controls to provide expertise and solutions to the environmental and sustainability challenges at the St Ives, Pollington, and Ramsbottom sites.
These Marshalls locations encountered significant issues with onsite heating and curing during the manufacturing process. The objective was to enhance energy management capabilities and lower heating energy consumption without compromising their product curing quality.
Challenges
Marshalls faced many key challenges with this project.
A lack of on-site control meant that unoccupied areas were heated while other occupied areas were under-heated. This led to unsatisfactory working conditions, wasteful heating consumption, and increased costs. Plus, as heating was used to cure the product, it was crucial to control temperatures effectively.
Solutions
Thanks to a site survey, a joint agreement on ambitions and targets, and the installation of a Clarke Controls EMS, we achieved all the required objectives.
Staff training in using the system significantly improved the overall approach to heating the site and optimising the curing process.
Results
The Clarke Controls EMS provided the ideal solution to the management challenges and exceeded all expectations across each site.
Despite COVID-based challenges, we significantly reduced heating costs and improved product curing via a more targeted approach, saving Marshalls over 25% on their energy and heating bills across all three sites.
- Improved culture of onsite energy management through behavioural change.
- Exceeded predicted return on investment.
- Improved operational control of the manufacturing curing process.
- Full operational control of heating, with cloud-based access, management and reporting.
Conclusion
Richard Capper MEL (Group Carbon 8 Energy Manager for Marshal’s PLC) confirmed that Clarke Controls had exceeded all expectations and achieved outstanding results to date, in what has been a very challenging period due to COVID-19 and commented,
“I wanted to work with a company that had the experience and expertise to address our energy management issues. and that company was Clarke Controls. The results speak for themselves”.