Green Machines

One of the UK’s greenest kitchen production companies has taken a proactive approach to reducing its carbon footprint, or carbon ‘tyreprint’, through the investment of over £370,000 in new environmentally considerate vehicles and an eco upgrade of its entire commercial vehicle fleet.

Through this investment Rixonway, which is the UK’s only kitchen manufacturer working exclusively within affordable housing, has added two 28 tonne tractor units, three 18 tonne demountable rigid units, four trailer units, four demountable box units and one drawer bar trailer to its fleet. This brings the total number of vehicles in Rixonway’s commercial fleet to 22, all of which work five days a week travelling the UK from Dundee to Plymouth and across Wales.

Each of the new vehicles is fitted with ‘Euro 5’ compliant engines which - the highest European Standard for the control of CO² emissions. Additionally, vehicles are fitted with an ADBLUE system which injects a non-hazardous compound directly into exhaust gases as they leave the engine, breaking them down into harmless natural water and nitrogen.

The entire commercial delivery fleet is also being fitted with new fuel saving tyres, which have been specifically designed to reduce wind resistance on the road, decreasing fuel consumption by up to 12 percent.

Rixonway’s Distribution Manager, Graeme Smith, said: “This is a significant investment which also benefits our customers who will also be able to reduce their own carbon footprint through association to our delivery services. The CO² emissions that derive from Rixonway’s vehicle fleet are measured and offset through ClimateCare which calculates any carbon compensation through energy efficient projects.”

The upgrading of its commercial vehicle fleet is the latest green initiative introduced by Rixonway which has developed a variety of tools, policies and strategies to reduce its environmental impact.

“In order to meet current environmental challenges, we have set and communicated stringent environmental performance targets and commitments,” said Rixonway’s Operations Director Nick Greenall. “We salvage 100% of the wood waste from our production processes which is re-used where possible or used to generate biomass fuel. We have made a concerted effort to reduce packaging in line with the Producer Responsibility Obligation (packaging waste) Regulation 2005, and are members of a Weee compliance scheme – which minimises the negative environmental aspects of disposing of our electrical items.”

Rixonway’s environmental performance targets and commitments have been ISO14001 accredited, and the company’s tenacious and consistent environmental initiatives earned it two awards at the 2007 Ground Works Environmental awards.

For more information on Rixonway’s environmental policies please visit http://www.rixonway.co.uk/index2.html