Bilston furniture company improves carbon footprint due to huge biomass boiler
A Bilston furniture company has radically reduced its carbon footprint after installing biomass heating system at its headquarters.
Utopia Furniture invested in the giant Talbott biomass system five years ago and it has used 3,000 tonnes of wood waste as fuel which would have been transported to a landfill site previously.
Jon Phelps, production engineering manager at Utopia, said: “The biomass boiler and heating system represented a considerable investment for Utopia but we really are reaping the benefits now.
"Collecting off-cuts and dust waste in skips and then transporting it to landfill sites was not only costly but also unsustainable in environmental terms."
He added: "This way we eliminate all of that process whilst generating our own energy.”
The wood waste has generated over 500,000kwh for Utopia which has heated the factory and offices during the winter months and also kept the two ovens used during the manufacturing process at the correct curing temperature all year round.
Normally 500,000kwh would heat 10 x 40ft indoor swimming pools for a year or heat 125 average size houses for a year.
The company has also exceed environmental targets each year by recycling packaging and has also taken steps to minimise the use of cardboard by cutting packaging to exact size on site. In addition, every year tonnes of packaging waste is recovered and recycled.
Almost 100% of the timber used in Utopia’s furniture is FSC certified and the company continues to actively explore new eco friendly measures to reduce its carbon footprint still further.
