Solar panels are installed at Focus SB
Back in May 2021 before anyone could have predicted the enormous increase in costs of utilities we have witnessed this year, Focus SB MD Gary Stevens engaged with Centreco Limited to look at a proposal for the installation of solar panels at our main factory site in St Leonards on Sea.
Here we are following several surveys and a full installation and commissioning complete, the switch over to solar power was completed on the 16th May, almost 12 months on from our original contact and marking another major step to reduce our carbon footprint.
Pledging significant ‘green energy’ investment plans, we are the first business in the local area to install solar power, incentivised by Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Super Tax policy to encourage manufacturers to invest in capital equipment, digital and green technologies.
Focus SB’s designers and mechanical engineers have long been at the forefront of the research and development of innovative and sustainable solutions in response to rapidly emerging technologies and environmental challenges. This latest investment will enable us to manufacture using electricity generated by the sun, and is another step in leading the way to a greener manufacturing future in our industry.
Gary says: “Reducing overheads at the same time as improving our environmental credentials is a win/win for any business and at the time we embarked upon this project, we were thinking of the green credentials more than the cost saving, but the unprecedented increase in costs of utilities makes it even more significant. When we are less than a week into utilising solar power and the dashboard shows that we have saved the equivalent of planting 10 trees and have reduced our CO2 emissions by 3.7 tonnes, it really makes it tangible.
Gary continues: “In addition to the obvious benefits outlined above, it has already got our operations management thinking about production processes and out-of-hours machine time to take full advantage of the electricity we are generating outside of normal working hours. This latest initiative goes hand-in-hand with our policy of changing our company car policy to embrace hybrid, or full electric cars and on-site charging stations that are now being fed by the solar panel installation.”
At Focus SB we recognise that to ensure the future of sustainable manufacturing it’s vital to embrace opportunities to play our part. Our membership of the UK trade association for our industry BEAMA enables us to contribute to this and also to be front of centre of policy-making and decision-making for the future of electrical industry standards, influencing UK and international government decisions, giving us a voice alongside our peers.
Focus SB holds long standing memberships of the Make UK and Made in Britain organisations which provide valuable support and a collective voice for UK companies stepping up to the sustainability challenge and a greener manufacturing future.
