A growing Blackpool business has committed to going carbon neutral, with support from our Making Carbon Work (MaCaW) project.
Private Label Nutrition, which manufactures and delivers a range of nutritional supplements from its headquarters on the Fylde coast, approached our European Regional Development Funded (ERDF) MaCaW project for advice on reducing and offsetting its carbon emissions.
For company director James Wilson, MaCaW’s support allowed him to promote the environmental credentials of his growing company as it continues to export and grow internationally.
New headquarters leads to green opportunities
The growing company, which manufactures tablets, capsules and powders that can be used to improve health outcomes, has traded since 2013 and experienced strong growth in the last five years, particularly through exporting white and private label products to the European market.
As a result, the firm was able to expand into a new factory next to Blackpool Airport in 2019, and as such was keen to the use the office move as a reason to reduce carbon emissions and environmental footprint in its manufacturing processes.
James said: “Manufacturing nutraceuticals tends to be a carbon heavy business, from operating large machinery through to distribution costs across the world. For us, we want to reduce that environmental impact and become as close to carbon neutral as we possibly can, offsetting any additional carbon that can’t be made renewable.
"Moving into our new headquarters gave us the opportunity to start that operation from scratch and we had the new facility fitted with LED lighting, modern and energy efficient machinery and a modern air handling system all to reduce our energy consumption."
Free MaCaW assessment estimates £9,000 of energy savings
As the company moved into the new headquarters, James was recommended by Blackpool Council business advisors to approach MaCaW for further recommendations on ways to reduce the environmental footprint.
Qualified energy auditors from the programme carried out a free assessment of the factory soon after and recommended a number of improvements which could help reduce the company’s carbon output by 18 tonnes per year, resulting in cost savings to the company of over £9,000.
Mark Nelson added: “James’ ambition to make his company carbon neutral is really forward thinking. Not only is reducing the firm’s carbon impact good for the planet, but it is also good for business too.
“Being a more environmentally friendly company can reduce energy bills by thousands of pounds a year and green credentials can make your business more attractive when bidding for new work with other companies.
“One of the great benefits of the MaCaW programme is that hundreds of small businesses in Lancashire can obtain a free energy assessment from our auditors and an easy to understand report of actions that they can take to reduce their carbon footprint, lower energy bills and potentially even apply for grant funding to support some of the capital works such as installing solar panels.”
MaCaW is a University of Central Lancashire project, an industry and academic collaboration funded by the European Regional Development Fund alongside UCLan, and supported by Boost; Lancashire’s business growth hub.
For more information please email macaw@uclan.ac.uk.