CHILLED FOOD

NEUTRAL SERVICES
CHILLED FOOD
How to keep your warehouse cool without warming the planet
DHL Neutral Services was engaged by a large chilled food distribution centre in the east
of England to analyse the operation’s carbon footprint and create recommendations for
the reduction of its carbon emissions and related operational cost savings.
Background
The DHL-owned site, situated close to
the motorway, is managed on behalf of
a major food manufacturer, to deliver
chilled food goods to supermarket
distribution centres in southern and
central England. Over 30 million cases
pass through the warehouse every year.
Goods are transported to the site from
either the manufacturer’s local factory,
using two shuttle tractor-and-trailers, or
from third-party suppliers. The site also
uses a tug unit for moving these trailers,
and fuel for these vehicles is stored on
site. All onward distribution to customers
is via third-party haulage, and an onsite
transport manager liaises with the
30-40 carriers used. The site consists of
a 15,000m2 fully chilled warehouse and
operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
employing around 135 staff per shift and
utilising 41 items of electrically powered
mechanical handling equipment (MHE).
The site also acts as a despatch centre
for waste goods that have passed their
‘distribute by’ date or failed qualitycontrol
testing.
Assess
As the fi rst step in DHL Neutral
Services’ comprehensive process, the
site completed a Carbon Footprint
Assessment (CFA) in July 2007 using
DHL Neutral Services’ web-based
tool to calculate its overall carbon
emissions and their source. Following
this, in November 2007, DHL Neutral
Services sent a Carbon Action Team to
conduct detailed on-site data collection
and evaluation of all construction,
engineering, power consumption and
2006
Usage
KWh/litres
2006
cost
£
equipment use, both to verify the CFA
and to identify larger and projectfocused
opportunities for reducing both
carbon emissions and operational costs.
Carbon Footprint
Assessment Summary
The CFA revealed that the site spent
over £1.5m on its energy requirements
and was responsible for emissions of
over 7,200 tonnes of CO2e per annum in
2007. These emissions were identifi ed to
have come from:
• ‘Brown’ electricity usage – mostly
refrigeration (which consumed 80%
of the site’s total electricity usage
and made up 35% of its carbon
footprint), internal lighting, battery
charging for electric MHE, airconditioning
and computer systems
• Use of refrigerant in the ageing
refrigeration system with leakages
equating to over 1,500 tonnes of
CO2e.
• The system consumes 50% more
electricity than a modern equivalent.
2006
CO2e
tonnes
2007E
Usage
KWh/litres
2007E
cost
£
• 26% of the site’s carbon footprint
attributable to fuel used by thirdparty
carriers
• 4,300 tonnes of ‘waste’ product
disposed of annually
Carbon Action Plan
2007E
CO2e
tonnes
Electricity 7,305,119 383,840 3,821 6,848,217 357,638 3,007
Gas 305,076 8,304 63 1,146,275 31,199 236
R22 Leakage 1,538 1,538
Other 55 55
Diesel (DHL) 77,507 52,214 204 68,280 47,760 180
Diesel (Third Party) 952,150 742,677 2,504 838,799 654,263 2,206
Total 8,185 7,222
DHL Neutral Services’ more detailed
assessment led to a Carbon Action
Plan (CAP), which addressed the
implementation of carbon-reduction
options in three key areas - property,
transport and operations - and made
recommendations for reducing,
replacing and neutralizing the site’s
carbon footprint. The plan included fully
costed proposals for new equipment,
with fi nancial modelling covering both
capital-intensive and shorter-term
carbon abatement projects. This plan
outlined a ‘quick-fi x’ route to reduce the
site’s property carbon footprint by 15%
and operational costs by £49,000 per
annum immediately; and a longer-term
plan to cut emissions by 45% over the
next four years, with an operational cost
saving of £161,000 per annum.

Quick Gains
Reduce
DHL Neutral Services recommended
that carbon footprint and operational
cost reductions were to be achieved
through: a) replacement of all current
high-pressure sodium internal lighting
with lower temperature Amalgam
fl uorescent-based tubes to provide
better-quality lighting, operational
cost savings of £14,000 per annum
and a carbon emissions saving of
144 CO2e tonnes; b) installation of a
heating control system in the front
offi ce area to amalgamate heating
and air-conditioning together into a
single system for effi cient environment
control, to save around £3,000 and 31
tonnes of CO2e per year; c) installation.
of voltage-optimising on the site’s 1500
kVA transformers to optimise incoming
voltage, potentially saving £32,000 of
energy costs and 310 tonnes of CO2e.
Together these reduction strategies
will deliver a 15% site property carbon
footprint reduction and a saving
over £49,000 of operational costs,
with payback in 4 years. All these
technologies are to be fully effective
within seven months of project
instigation.
Further effi ciencies could also be
delivered by an in-depth network
optimisation study to look at potential
improvements in third-party carrier
selection and management, and
increasing backhauling effi ciencies in
order to minimise cost and maximise
carbon savings.
Capital (£) Saving (£)
per annum
CO2e Saving
(with green tariff)
CO2e Saving
(without green tariff)
Despite recent improvements in the area
of waste disposal management – costing
the site around £5m per year for
disposal of over 4,500 tonnes of waste –
additional cost and carbon savings could
also be made: fi rst, through greater
effi ciency and speed in the supply chain,
involving better order-tracking and
use of early warning systems for any
changes; and second, by advances in
disposal methods and routing.
However, the most the most critical
action identifi ed by DHL Neutral Services
in reducing the carbon footprint and
operational cost of the site, was the
urgent replacement of the current
ineffi cient refrigeration systems with
a zero or minimal global warming
potential (GWP) refrigerant equivalent.
This would be in advance of EU
legislation banning the use of certain
refrigerants by 2014, and would deliver
considerable cost and carbon benefi ts.
Initiating the change immediately,
ahead of the deadline, would reduce
the site carbon footprint by 45% and
save £161,000 of operational costs per
year in terms of both maintenance
of the old system and ineffi cient use
of electricity. The project could be
completed in around 18 months and the
capital cost estimate obtained by DHL
Neutral Services was £400,000 lower
than the previous competitive tender.
Other factors in the decision to proceed
included the potential negative publicity
issues surrounding the use of certain
refrigerants and its leakage rates, the
possibility of a complete system failure,
and the increasing cost of maintenance
during the UK’s ever-warmer summer
months.
Replace
Payback
period
(years) Other benefi ts
Voltage Optimising - 1500 kVA 96,888 31,569 0 310 3.1 Improved power quality
Heating Management System 14,268 3,000 31 31 4.8 Energy usage visability
Amalgam Lighting 83,180 14,000 0 144 5.9 Improved lighting quality
Total 194,336 48,569 31 485 4
Assess
Reduce
Neutralize
Replace
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DHL Neutral Services
Contact Us
If you would like more details of how we can
help reduce your carbon footprint, please
contact DHL Neutral Services Ltd. by phone
or email:
Telephone: + 44 (0)1344 428128
Email: enquiries@theneutralgroup.com
DHL Neutral Services instigated the
switch of the site’s electrical supply to
DHL’s own 100% sustainable electricity
until November 2008. This will result in
a cost saving of £21,000 and deliver a
carbon saving of 3,500 CO2e tonnes.
Given the high energy usage of the site,
a wind turbine would be an attractive
replacement strategy. DHL Neutral
Services performed an initial feasibility
study into potential for a wind turbine
on site. Given the tight site boundaries,
locality of housing and a low wind speed
data, DHL Neutral Services classifi ed this
site as not feasible for a wind turbine.
Neutralize
DHL Neutral Services recommends
the use of neutralization through
the purchase of Certifi ed Emission
Reduction certifi cates only after the
implementation of all appropriate
reduction and replacement strategies.
After adoption of the short termmeasures,
the current cost to this site
of neutralizing their remaining carbon
emissions would be £59,000. Following
installation of the new refrigeration
system, these costs would drop to
£32,000.
DHL Neutral Services is an in-house carbon-consultancy practice established to
accelerate the commitment of business operations to reduce carbon emissions.
Our mission is to create and execute greenhouse gas reduction strategies
exclusively for DHL and our customers by assessing, reducing, replacing and in
some cases neutralizing direct and indirect CO2e emissions.
We achieve this by means of projects that provide short-term fi nancial return or
can be fi nanced with minimal operational impact to a client site.
We offer a range of services and solutions including carbon supply-chain
consultancy, emission-reduction plans and Carbon Reduction Implementation
Programmes.
DHL Neutral Services Ltd.
Ocean House
The Ring
Bracknell
Berkshire RG12 1AN
United Kingdom
www.theneutralgroup.com
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