UK manufacturer accredited for energy management systems

Courtney Lester, plant manager at BPD’s Merthyr Tydfil factory, and Karl Davies, SHEQ advisor

FOLLOWING an external auditing process by LRQA, Building Product Design has achieved ISO 50001 accreditation for both its production facilities.

The firm said the move helps in the journey to reduce its carbon footprint as a manufacturer, having put energy management systems in place at its two manufacturing plants.

ISO 50001 is centred around implementing effective systems as well as continually monitoring energy use and making changes to processes in response to the data for continuous improvement.

Building Product Design operates from factories in Pinxton, Nottingham and Merthyr Tydfil in Wales to manufacture building ventilation solutions and specialist building products under its three subsidiary brands – Glidevale Protect, Passivent and Kingfisher.

MD Ben Gerry said, “Whilst ISO 50001 isn’t mandatory, we identified it as a crucial step towards evaluating and lowering the environmental footprint of our business and to develop energy management processes for continuous improvement. Undertaking the certification process was a valuable learning curve in itself, allowing us to fully understand how we are using all our energy resources – from the electricity powering our production machines to gas heating our workspaces. By going through the process, we now have clear energy management goals in place to help lower our total energy consumption.

“It’s the culmination of 18 months of work from our project lead and colleagues in multiple departments across our sites in the UK. But ultimately, everyone working for the business is involved in some capacity so it’s important to us that we all understand the role we can play in making further improvements to our energy use going forward.”

Glidevale Protect was recently awarded gold accreditation by the Supply Chain Sustainability School – a virtual learning platform focused on sustainability, with the aim to upskill those working within the built environment sector.

Building Product Design now works to four internationally recognised standards including Quality (ISO 9001), Environmental Management System (ISO 14001), Health & Safety (ISO 45001) and the new Energy Management System (ISO 50001).