AM Awards: Best environmental policy, Gladwins Body Repair Centre

Best Environmental Policy award sponsored by Grant Thornton

Gladwins’ new accident repair centre in Peterborough was built from scratch with the environment in mind.

It stands out from Gladwins’ five other sites in Warboys, St Ives, Cambridge, King’s Lynn and
Thetford as a shining environmental example.

All employees and the company management have taken it on themselves to be held responsible for its high standard of environmental performance.

Energy-saving processes, from lighting, heating, waste management and recycling, have been
factored into the way Gladwins conducts its day-to-day business.

As a result, the Peterborough site consumes almost 20% less energy in comparison to other established Gladwins sites.

The building was constructed with insulation that exceeds current building regulations and the roof was designed with full-width double-skinned roof lights to allow a lot of natural light into the workshop, reducing dependence on electric lighting.

Gladwins’ refinish ovens were specially built by Nova Verta in Italy and use electronic fan speed controls to control the air flow depending on different job sizes.

The bodyshop also features sectional lighting and an automatic shutdown feature to save on waste energy.

Workshop hot air is circulated by ceiling-mounted fans which produce forced convection air movements and prevent stagnant hot air in the building’s eves.

Waste hot air is ducted into the workshop for heating in the winter or exhausted out of the building in the summer.

“All recruits are given a green induction on Gladwins’
environmental stance”

The bodyshop’s sanding operations have two dust extraction systems which allow waste hot air to be recycled into the workshop to save on heating costs.

All Gladwins’ repair centres have adopted a 100% recycling policy.

The Peterborough site sub-scribes to the SWR Environmental Workshop Waste Management Programme, which guarantees all waste generated will be disp-osed of in an environmentally friendly way.

New recruits are given a special green induction on Gladwins’ environmental stance.
Employees are given training on all equipment functions and their energy saving features and energy consumption charts are displayed.

Harvey Death, Gladwins managing director, said: “While we don’t claim to be using any radically
new technology we feel we’ve embraced a state-of-the–art approach in all areas possible
combined with a detailed common- sense approach.

“We have invested on a long-term environmental policy in what are difficult financial times.”

Finalists