Green, Green Gas
Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, read about our recent switch to renewable energy.
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Electric:
What is Green electric? Green means energy that is sourced from renewable sustainable sources such as wind, sun & sea. (link to more information about green energy, Wikipedia?) The electric that powers our offices and our fork truck fleet is powered by wind.
Did you know that wind turbines average at 295 feet tall? That is almost the same as the famous Statue of Liberty.
Wind turns the propeller-like blades of the huge turbines which then spins the generator inside. This is what creates the electricity.
Is it more expensive to use green energy?
Contrary to popular belief it is not more expensive to have renewable electric. For us it was an easy decision to make the switch to renewable electric. As a business we hope to set the standard for environmental responsibility.
The move to green electric was also part of our carbon neutral project (link). We have calculated that the switch has saved us very impressive 160 tons of Co2 in a single year. That’s the equivalent of 132 return flights from Sydney to Manchester or driving around the entire 7800 miles of UK coastline in a diesel car 76 times.
Gas:
Our most recent move was to green gas ! Is there such thing as green gas and can gas energy really be renewable? ……well yes it can.
Green Gas is produced through a process called ‘Anaerobic Digestion’, which is effectively a means of creating energy from waste produce, ‘digested’ foodstuffs and waste water.
Here is a little diagram of how it all works…
Put really simply it works like a cow’s stomach, ingredients (food) starts at one end, where it enters the four digestive chambers of the stomach. The energy giving fatty acids, amino acids, vitamins B and K and other nutrients are produced and absorbed, leaving the waste (which is then put back on the land as fertiliser) and then there’s the inevitable gas which just ‘disappears’ into the atmosphere, however it’s all produced naturally!
Industrial green gas production does pretty much the same thing, but obviously on a much larger and more ‘controlled’ scale, through the process of Anaerobic Digestion, but this generated gas is collected and then supplied to customers like us here at XL.
Unlike the production of renewable electric there is a little extra cost for green gas to supply the building, however as a business it is a cost that we think is massively offset by the benefits we can have on the environment.
It’s just little bit more that we can be proud of.
Moving Forward
Migrating all of our energy suppliers to sustainable sources is just the tip of the iceberg for us. Every year we reduce our carbon footprint further, and any carbon that we do produce we fund offsetting projects around the world. You can read more about our carbon neutral project’s here.
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