Meeting Held: 17 Nov 21

SOLAR PV INSTALLATIONS 6-YEAR PAYBACK NOW LOOK LIKE 3-YEAR PAYBACK WITH ELECTRICITY PRICE RISES

We installed 20KW of solar PV for our London and Bristol buildings in 2022 as an experiment.

For one building with 10KW solar PV installed:

At 19p/unit, the annual saving is estimated to be  £1,810, which is a 6-year payback. 

However, at 65p/unit (new green tariff from 2023), the annual saving is now estimated to be £6,192, which is a 2-year payback.  We are looking to increase solar PV provision massively in 2023 as a result. Our contractor is timrenergysolutions@gmail.com 

VMI IMPLEMENTS USING POTATO STARCH BAGS FOR SEALING FILTERS

After widespread experimentation with different materials, VMI finally took delivery of its first bags made entirely of potato starch which break down in a regular consumer compost bin within 3-months.

VMI will use these to seal filters and some other items to minimise its environmental impact.

VMI BOOKS EUROSTAR TO VISIT IBC IN AMSTERDAM

We travelled to visit the IBC TV convention in Amsterdam for the first time, with Eurostar in 2022.

It was great, except for the rail strike, which means that we flew out and trained back.  Eurostar doesn’t take any longer than by plane and avoids the horrendous airport passport queues, post-COVID.

Warehouse Insulation Project

I saw Ecotherm insulated panels lining a studio recently and thought that these would be a great solution for us.  Probably 100mm panels would be suitable:  https://www.ecotherm.co.uk/

I am having these costed by Pegasus, our contractor.  Pat.Booden@pegasus-storage.co.uk 

Another supplier contacted is perry@ecotiffin.co.uk 

First EVs delivered

First EVs are delivered and our power usage for London actually went up in spite of Solar PV provision, as staff with EVs charge their vehicles at work.

Planning for 3rd Carbon Audit

VMI is planning to complete its 3rd annual carbon audit in January and February 2022 and aim to have this independently audited and pay to offset all 2022 emissions.

Completed solar installations on both London and Bristol buildings (21KW) and saved an estimated 6T of CO2 in July and have already noticed a 60% cut in electric in Bristol but their EVs haven’t yet arrived.

However, in London and in spite of the great weather and long days, our electric usage has increased owing to 4 x EVs and as yet NONE of our van EVs have arrived (VW cancelled all orders after a year-long delay!  For reference, I have been waiting for my own personal EV to be delivered after waiting 1.5 years since April 2021 and ETA is October).

Conclusion is that EVs will distort the electric usage (obviously), though this will greatly offset the diEsel usage.  Michael White drives in every day from Peterboro’ (this greatly impacts our scope 3 emissions) and he was able to lease an EV using the Octopus ‘Electric dreams’ facility which we set up, so he was able to switch from a thirsty diesel car driving 1000 miles per week to an EV and cut his carbon usage and save money really easily..

Andrew Bartlett, Enlightened Lighting

(Andrew sent his apologies and these brief notes as to their sustainability news)

We have been successful in applying for a £15k “Green Business Grant” from West Of England Combined Authority.  Now waiting to try and get a company to install a 50KW solar system on our warehouse roof.

We successfully trailed an electric van courtesy of Bristol Council for a month.  Worked well, drivers like it etc.  Downfall for us was the technicality of the trial meant we could only have 5 drivers so it did not get driven as much as we would have liked.  As a medium size van it was great.

We are still using paper tape on many cables internally. Heavy mains are still wrapped with PVC.

123 Lighting Rental-Martin

Implemented rechargeable batteries.  Rechargeable battery cases are breaking.  A good supplier has been found for storing them.

Martin to share the source of these.

Reduced plastic waste.

Moving to LED lights.

Greenkit Rental

• Polyboards – running down stocks and providing incentives for clients to switch to Lastolite Skylight Rapids. Sell the benefits – size, ease of use, reusable, and transport costs. Painting the aluminium frames black as we have had feedback from clients that the shiny frames reflect in stock. 

• Repair of textiles – inhouse repair of damaged textiles to create smaller eg. 8×8 resewn into 6×6 and use the offcuts as warehouse cleaning rags

• Vitality Health Insurance – ths provider offers incentives to employees re. Keeping active therefore encouraging cycle to work… 

November 2022