The end of last year seemed to race past and we realised we didn’t write up our Energy Efficiency ‘Learning from Leaders’ Event from October. So here is a brief summary:
Martin McArthur from Cadbury talked us through their energy and sustainable goals and some of the energy projects that were tackled in 2016 including the development of an energy plan, energy metering strategy, air and steam leak surveys and the highly successful heat recovery project that is saving 1,140MWh per annum or 157tCO2-e.
Peter Van Meer from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) talked us through funding opportunities and engagement strategies that work well. Cadbury have a collaboration agreement with EECA that allows funding to be quickly obtained for projects. Within a 12 month period, Cadbury completed more than 10 projects that received some level of funding from EECA.
Chris Dawson from Pioneer Energy explained how the company is owned by the Central Lakes Trust and discussed its unique proposition of partnering with its clients to delivery energy efficiency projects among other things.
We also visited the chocolate melting room where attendees were treated to entering the heart of the factory and see first hand some of the energy efficiency changes that have been happening including energy metering, improved melter design and controls that reduced the melt time for a block by more than 50%
Whirika’s Lloyd McGinty spoke about the opportunities organisations have to be involved in leveraging EECA funding for projects, particularly energy metering and planning, feasibility reports, energy audits and surveys and new technology such as biomass wood energy boiler systems.
In brief, we had a great event where we learned a lot from industry and ate delicious food (thank you Cadbury for the space and the nibbles).
Now 2017 is here we will be hosting more Learning from Leaders events, so watch this space for updates.