At the production factory in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, where Hyster® trucks are produced, more than 20 businesses came together on 21st November for a Resource Matching Workshop to find new ways of reducing their waste through promotion of Industrial Symbiosis.
This workshop was organised by International Synergies NI Ltd, on behalf of Invest Northern Ireland, which for the past ten years has been bringing together different businesses through their ‘Industrial Symbiosis’ service. This service helps businesses to re-purpose what would otherwise be underutilised or wasted resources.
Industrial symbiosis aims to achieve a more sustainable and integrated industrial economy that identifies business opportunities to improve the utilisation of resources such as materials, energy, water, capacity, expertise, assets and more.
The Craigavon plant, where most Hyster® forklift trucks up to 5.5 tonnes are produced for Europe, currently diverts 97.5% of its waste from landfill, making it the perfect host for such an event.
As part of the Craigavon site’s mission to divert the remaining 2.5% of its waste, the special workshop event introduced other businesses to the benefits of resource matching, the importance of reducing landfill, and how they can benefit from being part ofthe Industrial Symbiosis service. A representative from Hyster-Yale Group shared their particular experience of how industrial symbiosis has been successfully used within the business.
All global Hyster-Yale Group locations are working towards a target of achieving zero waste to landfill by 2026. Learn more about this in the Hyster-Yale Group 2017 Corporate Responsibility Report.
To move towards this goal, the Craigavon plant has already made a number of links with local businesses to repurpose waste resulting from its operation. For example, by selling plastic waste to a local company, the proceeds of which are donated to charity.
The resource matching project has also enabled the plant to identify more cost efficient, and environmentally friendly, processes around waste management. For example, the factory now purchases used metal barrels from a local company for sending out paint waste products, instead of ordering in new ones. As the barrels are purchased at a favourable price, the local business no longer needs to sell the barrels as scrap. This reduces waste, while also generating cost savings for the Craigavon plant.
“Sustainability continues to be ongoing priority for all of our sites and our team has worked hard to make significant changes that benefit the environment,” says Alan Little, Vice President Manufacturing & Logistics, EMEA for Hyster. “As a result of this commitment, our manufacturing facilities are all certified to ISO 14001 for environmental management systems, and the Craigavon site has received numerous quality awards.”
Following the event at the Craigavon plant, all of the attending businesses will receive a report outlining the discussions on the day. This will enable further collaboration between companies and help to prevent any opportunities for resource exchange from being missed.
Hyster Europe is committed to supporting environmental sustainability and contributing to green materials handling here.
Read more about Hyster-Yale Group’s commitment to corporate responsibility: http://www.hyster-yale.com/About/corporate-responsibility/
