Zero Waste to Landfill & Energy Reduction

Waste to landfill creates CO2 emissions, soil erosion and depletes natural resources. At the beginning of 2022, CCL Secure UK set out to divert all site waste from landfill.
Energy reduction and management is a critical first step in reducing unnecessary CO2 emissions. CCL Secure UK recognised that it must play its part in preventing waste of natural resources. By carrying out this project, CCL Secure UK aimed to reduce Steam, Electricity and Water usage in the manufacture of Guardian Polymer Banknote Substrate. We used industry-leading aM&T (automatic Monitoring & Targeting) platform Carbon Desktop to carry out data-driven analysis, taking specific action on driving down demand:

• Optimised compressed air sequencing
• Set new SOPs to minimise out of hours and idling plant consumption
• Optimised HVAC set points and time-of-use settings
• Optimised heat recovery plant
• LED Lighting across the whole site
• Installation of waterless urinals
• Closed loop water cooling system
• As part of the project, a sustainability training programme has been established and rolled out across the organisation, which generated additional improvement ideas. We engaged the entire business in novel discussions to generate environmental and cost efficiencies.
  The aim of the project was to:
• achieve Zero Waste to Landfill
• Reduce water consumption by 40%
• Reduce Steam by 10%
• Reduce electricity by 5%
• Positively engage our workforce

This project was implemented at the CCL Secure Site in the UK.

Energy was saved by various methods; methods such as changing the filtration type in the factory air handling units which meant an increase in air flow, this in turn allowed the huge air inlet fans to have their speed reduced thus reducing electricity and CO2 emissions. We also made changes to machinery by sequencing when air blowers would come on by reprogramming the machine to only put the air on when the machines were running. These were ideas from employees that were turned into successful reality. We set up a team on site to find new waste streams, this was to find other businesses that could make use of our site waste. For example, our site ink buckets are now re-used

The project addressed and reduced the use of natural resources as we now use less energy and water. It also prevents waste going to landfill; again reducing the global reliance on natural resources. Less energy and no waste to landfill reduces the CO2 emissions generated by our site which is vital in the battle to prevent global warming above 1.5c. This project also continues to make the manufacture of our product more sustainable through responsible manufacturing.

Proven Impacts:
• Zero waste to landfill from CCL Secure UK site operations.
• 16% reduction in absolute Steam usage which equated to 91.5t CO2e
• 1.2% reduction in Absolute Electricity Usage which equated to 8t CO2e
• 59% reduction in water usage
• Results do not include any offsetting or Market Based Instruments
Expected Impacts:
• Increase in Employee engagement result through our 2023 Employee Engagement Survey.

All proven impacts have been calculated in accordance with the internationally recognised Greenhous Gas Protocol and the BSi PAS2050 standard.

CCL Secure have committed to being carbon neutral by 2030, CCL Industries the group that owns CCL Secure have committed to Net Zero with the SBTi.

This project seamlessly fits with the strategy of Carbon Neutrality and the CCL Industries Net Zero commitment as reducing emissions is absolutely key to achieving this. In order to achieve Net Zero, highly ambitious targets will be set and need to be realised with regards to reducing CO2 emissions. 2022 saw the continuation of CCL Secures sustainability journey after having already achieved a 26% reduction in C02 emissions per tonne of product since 2018.

For our achievements to date, CCL Secure UK and our sustainability consultants Verco Global were awarded the ‘2022 Energy Management Award’ by the Energy Institute in London.