Kingspan Insulated Panels awarded Carbon Trust Standard

Leading building products manufacturer Kingspan Insulated Panels has been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard in recognition of the excellent performance of its UK manufacturing sites. The company’s sites in Holywell, Sherburn and Walsall were each recognised for various initiatives that actively manage and reduce their carbon emissions.

The Carbon Trust Standard is a mark of excellence identifying organisations that have measured, managed and reduced their carbon emissions. To achieve the Carbon Trust Standard, organisations must be able to both display annual carbon reductions over a period of three years and prove that they have the necessary management procedures, plans and targets in place to continue achieving year-on-year carbon reductions in the future.

Each of the recognised sites was judged to be monitoring and reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions effectively. At the Holywell facility, a 2,900m2 roof mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) system was commissioned in August 2011. The system, installed by Kingspan Energy, is generating approximately 314MWh per year. This is complemented by more recent energy efficiency measures at the site, including a new air compressor, lighting improvements, motors and drives replacement, extraction system modifications and energy sub-metering, which are predicted to save 1.1GWh per annum.

At Sherburn in North Yorkshire, Kingspan Energy is set to install the UK’s largest roof mounted PV system later this year. This will drastically reduce the facility’s grid-based energy consumption and carbon emissions. An intelligent LED lighting system, Kingspan Smart-Lite, will be installed in the factory at the site. Additional improvements include changes to the compressed air system, installation of an automated energy monitoring and targeting system with additional metering, and a Building Management System (BMS). These changes are predicted to save 1.8GWh and reduce carbon emissions by 800 tonnes per year.