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COYLE AND GREER AWARDS CANADA LTD. |
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In Brenda MacDonald’s opinion, energy efficiency isn’t “rocket science,” but it can still have measurable results. According to MacDonald, President and CEO of Coyle and Greer Awards Canada Ltd., energy efficiency improvements can be made almost anywhere. “You just have to start thinking about your products and your processes to see where you can find savings,” she said. “If you’re a small company, there’s no need to use your hardearned dollars to hire a consultant to do a full-out energy audit.” Enlist the help of your own staff to come up with ideas – it’s amazing how innovative your own people are! MacDonald and her staff work in a 27,000-square-foot school that’s been converted into a factory that produces recognition awards like lapel pins, cast products such as medallions and keyfobs in base metal, pewter and zinc as well as 10 karat and 14 karat corporate jewellery. Located on the outskirts of a small town between London and Woodstock, the facility is bright and spacious. Its rooms are flooded by natural light thanks to the many windows installed in this 1963-vintage school. In the last year alone, MacDonald has been able to shave eight per cent off her electricity costs by making some simple changes around the plant. Though her annual costs are quite low by manufacturing standards – total electricity costs hover near $46,000 – they still represent a significant cost and the money that they save can be reinvested in other areas. One of the most important changes was the replacement of an outdated, inefficient air compressor, which runs the hot stamping machines. The existing 20-tonne compressor was replaced with a high-efficiency five-tonne compressor which meets the needs of this small manufacturer much more effectively. Similarly, MacDonald recognized the plant’s burn-out oven, used to make castings, was rarely operating at full capacity. As a result, she was able to replace the larger oven with one more appropriately sized, which uses two-thirds less energy than the larger oven. “It’s not complicated stuff,” MacDonald said of the energy efficiency improvements she’s made to date, “and it’s not expensive.” Over the years, she has invested in caulking, insulation, window film, programmable thermostats and motion sensors. While these are not large capital expenditures, they all play an important role in helping MacDonald keep her costs down – and her profit up. Two summers ago, during the record-breaking heat and humidity of 2005, the facility’s air conditioning system failed. That’s when MacDonald introduced a new rule around lighting: to prevent heat gain, all the lights in the facility were turned off until the AC was repaired. Because of the many windows in the building, enough natural light filtered in to allow employees to carry on working without interruption. To this day, overhead lights are rarely turned on in the summertime. MacDonald is an active member of the Executive Committee of CIPEC, the Canadian Industry Program for Energy Conservation, a partnership between the federal government and industry associations/companies representing some 98 per cent of all industrial energy use in Canada. Despite this role, MacDonald’s interest in energy efficiency is grounded in her own company’s operations. She is characteristically blunt in her assessment of the benefits of good energy management practices. “You don’t do this for fun,” she said. “It’s all about money.” |
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