Low Carbon: Recognition for greener Widnes firm

The recognition comes from the Carbon Trust and was made because of the 'real and quantifiable reductions' that employees have made to carbon emissions and water use in the past two years.

The manufacturing facility has reduced its carbon footprint by a third, resulting in a 20% reduction in utility costs this year compared to 2008.

The Widnes site is GE's first in the UK to be given the accreditation, and is also one of the UK's first chemical firms to have gained the standard.

With a final assessment result of 90%, the site also achieved one of the highest scores seen so far as part of the Carbon Standard assessment process.

The facility covers nearly 100,000sq m.

Water treatment chemicals are manufactured, stored and shipped from the facility to other parts of the UK and the Nordic region.

With more than 750 chemical formulations being manufactured on site, water and energy use is intensive.

However, thanks to the efforts of the whole team, impressive savings have been made, bosses said.

Measures to reduce waste included the implementation of a new process where water used to wash out vessels between chemical production batches is reused into compatible products as a raw material.

Staff said the process has achieved a 30% reduction in water consumption on the site since 2006.

Mark Elborne, national executive of GE UK & Ireland, said: "Congratulations to plant manager Joseph Fay, and site manager Tony Collacott as well as the entire Widnes team on this significant achievement."