Excellence in energy management in businesses, communities and public sector organisations was under the spotlight at last week’s Sustainable Energy (SEAI) Awards gala event, which saw Dairygold winning the Large Business Energy Management category, sponsored by ESB, for its energy management programme.
Dairygold’s energy management programme is founded on the international energy management standard, ISO50001 and they have received certification for two processing sites in Mitchelstown. The standard is extensively utilised to drive the ongoing development of their energy management programme and identification of energy saving projects for investment.
To date, the company have implemented numerous projects, including the largest biogas boiler installation in Europe. The majority of projects carried out were relatively low cost and delivered a return on investment shortly after implementation, with annual energy savings of 7.67 GW and €300,000 in cost savings achieved to date.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Dr Gabriel Kelly, Group Environment, Health & Safety Manager stated: “This award is a wonderful recognition of the team work carried out as part of ISO 50001 energy management coupled with our lean manufacturing process to achieve the energy savings. This award shows that small to medium projects can make a difference to energy conservation and the adoption of an energy efficiency project strategy yields both benefits for the organisation, and in this instance national recognition.”
This is the 14th year of the SEAI Sustainable Energy Awards and entrants to the eight categories demonstrated savings of over €27 million. Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) took away the top prize for Energy Team of the Year.
WIT impressed judges with its organisation wide approach to saving energy, with staff and students working together it has surpassed its 33% energy efficiency target and is saving an impressive €300,000 per year on energy bills.
For full details on all winning projects, visit www.seai.ie
