Planet Positive have helped Bowmer & Kirkland save more than £315,000 over two years and reduce their carbon emissions by over 800 tonnes during the same period. They have now reinvested a large amount of these savings into further energy saving measures.

Company Background

Bowmer & Kirkland Limited are part of the Bowmer & Kirkland (B&K) Group of Companies, which is now among the most successful privately owned construction, engineering and development companies in the UK.

Why Planet Positive?

“Being Planet Positive has helped provide a framework to meet our commitments and enable our company to communicate sustainable objectives to our employees, our clients and the community”.

Graham Lee, Design and Environmental Manager, Bowmer & Kirkland

What did we have to do?

Vehicle Emissions: After the measurement of B&K’s carbon footprint in 2008 (by dcarbon8), Planet Positive recommended B&K adopt a detailed Green Travel Plan for staff with the specific aim of reducing car emissions that contributed more than 95% of the travel carbon footprint in 2008. By focussing on behaviour change, to help deliver these reductions at low cost, significant returns were made.

Office Emissions: Planet Positive advised B&K to continue to implement and extend their Office Energy Policy since their 2008 assessment highlighted electricity consumption to be the largest contributor to the carbon footprint, amounting to 49% of emissions (in 2008).

Waste and Paper: Planet Positive also helped B&K work towards a Zero Waste to Landfill Strategy which was incorporated into their Sustainability Guide. This ensured all relevant material and energy data was being collated accurately and then interpreted.

Results

Since 2008, B&K have achieved significant savings in both their carbon emissions and costs, well over the initial investment. Please see below for a selection of their savings over the two year period:

*Please note: We have assumed the ream cost for paper at £2.50

Future Reductions

B&K have re-invested around £225K of these savings on further energy saving measures to continue the downward trend in CO2 emissions. This has included investment in a documentation management system to reduce paper and waste usage, a new heat pump system to reduce electricity usage and the installation of “intelligent” computer-based Building Management System (BMS) to control both heating and cooling and reduce energy usage out of hours and in unoccupied space.