Green initiatives drive down costs

by Catherine Woods - Monday, 5th November 2007 -

Guess how much Tana Water saved when it turned off the heating in its warehouse during winter in a bid to be eco-friendly?

If you guessed £11,000, you'd be right.

Nick Heane, the water cooler company’s MD and acting FD, tells us: “The brown cardboard boxes didn’t need to keep warm during the winter. Two guys are at the warehouse occasionally. We bought them a coat each – a thick fleece.”

Tana Water has found being environmentally friendly is also bottom-line friendly. Heane says incentivising the company’s sales force to drive down the business miles travelled each week has also resulted in cash savings.

“We’ve implemented a targeted, precise way to do our selling. It’s postcode-specific, which cuts down the amount of fuel our sales people use and the mileage that they rack up. Each salesman is rewarded on the least amount of miles he’s driven in a vehicle.”

Heane says the sales guys used to drive 1,200 miles each every week. The current average is about 900 miles per week and some employees are hitting 700 miles.

Another way the company reduces its carbon footprint is by sourcing its machines from Israel (where Tana Water’s parent company is based) instead of China, which is where 99 per cent of the world’s water coolers come from.

“When they come from Israel, they spend two weeks on the water, not four weeks, as is the case with Chinese machines,” Heane says.

The company also offsets its carbon emissions, recycles all its pallets and cardboard, and has built an energy-saving device into its water coolers.

WHAT NEXT?
Sign up for our newsletter and get our weekly pick of business news in your inbox!
Subscribe to our magazine for in depth interviews and advice from leading entrepreneurs!
Join our forum and talk business with other entrepreneurs!