How to use less water, and influence people!

Posted by Colin Hensley on January 30, 2009 in Green Technologies

Water on Leaves

Last week I was in the United Kingdom, at meetings with my colleagues from the operations there, including some from TMUK, our UK manufacturing operation. During lunch we were talking about the various activities that they have been busy with as part of their Sustainable Plant institutive.

One of the ones I found most interesting was to do with the reduction in water use at the plant. Over the past few years they have done a number of different things to use less, and re-use more. What impressed me is the way of thinking, it’s not just aiming for big wins, but consistently and continuously looking for every possible improvement. That’s the real kaizen mind, that is at its best in the plant.

There are some ‘big’ activities, one of which is the reverse osmosis plant, which takes the wastewater from the painting process and cleans it up to allow it to be used as feed water for steam boilers and cooling for compressors. This in itself represents a saving of 50000 tonnes per year!

As a result TMUK has reduced water consumption by 72% compared with 1993 levels.

Perhaps the icing on the cake is that this activity has been recognised by the community, with TMUK receiving a Big Tick Eco-efficiency Award from the NGO Business In The Community in 2007 and 2008.

Please have a look at our TV commercial if you are interested in seeing many of the Sustainable Plant activities in one 60 second spot.

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