EPI CARBON REDUCTION CASE STUDY WITH MJ QUINN /BT

 

Overview

MJ Quinn is an industry-leading provider of design, installation and maintenance of telecoms, electrical, fire detection and suppression systems, as well as LED lighting, air cooling and building services. At the beginning of its Openreach Network Service Agreement (ONSA) contract for Wales (Mid and North Wales and South Wales), BT communicated its commitment to bringing down emissions across its value chain. For MJ Quinn, this represented an important opportunity to improve the organisation’s sustainability performance.

 

The challenge

The problem at the time was that if there was a job that needed to be done, for example, in the south of Wales, an MJ Quinn driver would have to drive from Liverpool, where the company is based. This mileage translated into a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions. Though the company recognised there were other opportunities to reduce its carbon footprint, their fleet of vans was the single greatest contributor – responsible for 90 percent of all the emissions it was putting out.

 

The solution

Working in partnership with epi Consulting, BT’s sustainability consultancy, MJ Quinn identified 10 carbon reduction opportunities. There were three main areas of its operations where emissions might be brought down: fleet and travel, buildings, and waste management. MJ Quinn focused primarily on its fleet for greatest impact.

It decided to bring people closer to the work, and so reduce the emissions caused by driving long distances from the North-East of England. Over the course of a year, it established a number of regional logistics hubs from which local drivers could travel where they needed without running up a large amount of mileage.

MJ Quinn went further. It also ensured that its fleet of vans was 100 percent Euro 6 compliant, meaning that its vehicles met the European Union’s emissions standards for nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbons and particulate matter. It also purchased 12 electric vans, eight of which have now been allocated and are in use. An idling campaign, designed to encourage drivers to cut their engines when stationary, was also put in place.

To bring down additional emissions caused through harsh braking and poor speed management, for example, MJ Quinn also implemented driver monitoring and training using scores, which rank drivers according to their driving efficiency. It installed a Sure Track telematics system to its entire fleet of vehicles to measure performance.

The company then took steps to reduce its emissions in its buildings, installing a heat pump in its main logistics hub, and ensuring all IT equipment was shut down when the team was out-of-office. It looked to make improvements in landfill diversion and in increasing the recycling of telecoms cable in order to get maximum sustainability benefit from waste management.

 

The result

The electric vans now allocated travelled a total of 7769.6km during the first quarter of 2023, saving 1.9 tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions. The idling campaign, meanwhile, has saved 9 tonnes since its introduction. An electric vehicle charging facility has now been installed at each of MJ Quinn’s central buildings, with 10 charging bays available at the company’s main logistics hub.

Thanks to driver monitoring and training, 3.06 tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions have been saved, and twenty-nine drivers have been trained so far through the new process. The establishment of new logistics depots in Deeside and Newport alone – key to reducing the mileage that drivers ran up – has saved 127.4 tonnes.

In buildings, the forced shutdown of IT equipment has also saved 7.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide, while in respect of waste management, improvements in landfill diversion have saved 3 tonnes. Moreover, telecoms cable and synthetic blue rope are now segregated for recycling by specialists.

Overall, MJ Quinn’s interventions have reduced the company’s carbon footprint since the start of the ONSA contract by 7 percent – amounting to savings of 1,484.87 tonnes in carbon dioxide.

 

Future plans

MJ Quinn’s success in improving their sustainability performance has motivated them to go further. The company is now exploring further opportunities to reduce the emissions released on employees’ commutes, striving to improve driver training rates, and looking to identify sources of ‘parasitic power’, such as IT and similar equipment left on standby. It plans to continue to model electric van emissions savings and, if possible, to switch to supplying buildings with green energy.

All in all, MJ Quinn’s sustainability initiative, encouraged by BT, in partnership with epi Consulting, has been a resounding success.