Innovation drives £15m low carbon investment in UK manufacturing

The programme, called the Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator (IEEA) is run by the Carbon Trust. It wants to slash the carbon emissions and energy costs of the UK manufacturing sector by up to a third and help manufacturing businesses become more competitive.

It has already been working with three companies – Britvic, Highland Spring and Tarmac – in a pilot phase that aimed to find innovative low carbon processes that could be replicated across other companies in the manufacturing sector.

The heating process to melt plastic in the manufacture of plastic bottles is just one of the results of this collaboration and the Carbon Trust claims it could save the drinks industry £9 million.

Another developed with Tarmac, involves using cold mix asphalt that could save up to 80 per cent of energy currently used in traditional asphalt, reducing CO2 emissions by 37,500 tonnes and saving the industry over £5.5 million.

Yet another are more efficient machines for pressing animal feed, which could save 30,000 tonnes of CO2 and reduce the energy bills of manufacturers in this industry by £5.6 million.

More than a quarter of the UK's carbon emissions come from industry and the aim of the IEEA is to find innovative new ways to reduce them.

“The way to make truly substantial cuts is to get to the very heart of manufacturing,” said Dr Mark Williamson, the Carbon Trust's director of Innovations. “By rethinking the way manufacturers operate from the ground up we plan to spearhead a low carbon industrial revolution that will not only reduce emissions but will also increase demand for innovation, generate jobs and cut costs."

Through detailed analysis of energy consumption, the Carbon Trust was able to identify potential average savings in energy costs and carbon emissions of 28 per cent across manufacturers of plastic bottles, animal feed and asphalt in the pilot stage of the IEEA.

The Carbon Trust is now inviting companies in those industries to collaborate in research, development and demonstration of lower carbon manufacturing processes with the aim of making them commercially viable. It is offering £250,000 match funding to partners in each sector.

The Carbon Trust thinks the programme could reduce energy costs for businesses overall by more than half a billion pounds and cut carbon emissions by more than three million tonnes. It should also help manufacturing businesses be better prepared for the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme, a carbon emissions trading scheme that comes into effect in April 2010.

It is expected that trade bodies and businesses from around 25 different sectors will participate in the IEEA over a four year period.

Industry leaders today backed the scheme.

Stephen Radley, director of Policy at EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, said: "We are a strong supporter of this project. It's a clear demonstration of the Carbon Trust's commitment to the manufacturing sector and could help companies take their energy efficiency to the next level. Many EEF members will also see it as an exciting opportunity to develop and supply innovative solutions to the participating industries."

"The food and drink manufacturing industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the country and reducing our environmental impact is a key objective of our members,” added Stephen Reeson, head of Climate Change and Energy Policy at The Food & Drink Federation. “The Carbon Trust's Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator programme is a welcome additional support initiative in tackling sector specific energy issues. Working with our members and the Carbon Trust we look forward to improving the industry's energy efficiency."

Britain's biggest retailer Tesco is also backing the programme.

David North, Community and Government director at Tesco, said: "This is impressive leadership by the Carbon Trust. We need precisely this sort of collaboration on carbon and cost savings in manufacturing if we are to achieve the low-carbon economy we need."