As part of our long standing commitment to protect the environment, Mercian Labels have introduced many planet friendly projects over recent years; but with our focus on continuous improvement, we are always looking for more ways to improve our triple bottom line.

With ever increasing Energy costs and inflation running rife throughout the economy, we saw an opportunity to not only benefit the environment, but to also help maintain a competitive price advantage, which is why we took the decision to invest over £100,000 in a combination of energy reduction and on-site energy generation capabilities.

A large part of this investment saw the installation of over 250 solar panels on our factory roof in Plant Lane, Burntwood last week.

With the ability to generate over 98 megawatts of electricity each year, the new system aims to provide more than 15% of our annual energy needs, with any surplus being exported back to the grid, whilst simultaneously saving over 21 tonnes of related carbon emissions.

The rest of our recent investment involved the replacement of 28 traditional high-level lights within our 24 hour production and warehousing areas, with sensor-activated low energy LED lighting.

The lights only operate at full strength when a colleague is working in the area directly beneath them; reducing to 10% power use soon after the area is vacated, before switching off completely after a further few minutes of inactivity within their field of use.

Despite this being a relatively small change, Mercian Labels are now on track to save around 43% in related Energy Costs, whilst also reducing our carbon footprint.

Managing Director, Dr. Adrian Steele explained “As part of our focus on the environment, we see these investments as a real win for everyone. As well as reducing our environmental impact, we are also reducing our operational costs, which is not only good for our business, but also benefits our customers and therefore their end users as well”.

Other environmental measures previously introduced include everything from sourcing sustainable Wood Film substrates to replace traditional fossil fuel based label stock, replacing packaging void fill with commonly recyclable paper alternatives, sponsoring and managing the creation of a local woodland as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy scheme and the creation of one of the UK’s first Label Liner Recycling schemes.