At Smiths Detection we’re constantly working to reduce our negative impact on the earth; it’s our way of helping to make the world a better place while we work to make it a safer place. On World Earth Day, we want to recognise and celebrate some of the earth positive initiatives of our sites and team members across the globe.
Retrofitting to improve efficiency
We’re always looking for new ways to improve energy efficiency, so when it came time to replacing the 20-year-old boiler at our Wiesbaden site, going with a more energy efficient, economical boiler was an easy choice. “We’re expecting to reduce our energy consumption by 10 percent with this new boiler, which works by capturing some energy that might otherwise be wasted and using this to further support heating,” explains Wiesbaden Site HSE Manager, Manfred Heinz. “The system also uses solar energy for the water heating, allowing us to depend less on gas.”
Diverting waste from landfill
No waste produced at our Hemel Hempstead location goes to landfill.
Site HSE Manager Steve Day explains: “Essentially, everything is sorted into chemical waste, recycling, WEEE, metal and general. Any waste that goes into general is incinerated, with heat generated from this is used to make electricity and what is left at the bottom of the furnace is used for aggregate for roads. This all means that nothing from Hemel goes to Landfill.”
In addition, Hemel has established clear waste and recycling bins in common areas and removed personal recycling bins. “This has created a real behavioural change amongst our team members” said Hemel Hempstead HSE lead, Steve Day. “And made it easier for us to introduced food waste collection too, in order to reduce the amount of food we send to landfill – which is a significant cause of greenhouse gas emissions”.
Product sustainability
All Smiths of our manufacturing sites are ISO 14001 certified, which requires continuous review and improvement of our sites environmental impact and our manufacturing. In addition, we’re continuously looking to improve our products and their efficiency, which we do early on in our product development; this both reduces running costs and energy requirements for our customers. “I wouldn’t say our focus on energy efficiency is something we’ve consciously done from an environmental perspective, but just something we’re always looking to do.” said Rainer Henkel, R&D Director. “It is, however, a nice consequence of our attitude toward creating the best equipment.”