MITIE has helped Virgin Trains cut its carbon emissions by over seven per cent and in so doing gain BS EN 16001 accreditation for its energy management.
The train company used MITIE, a leading FTSE 250 strategic outsourcing and energy services company, to evaluate and improve its energy usage at 25 railway stations and offices around the UK.
As a result Virgin Trains has reduced its emissions for stations and offices by 7.2 percent since 2008.
MITIE helped Virgin Trains by gathering energy data from their stations and Offices, across some 25 five sites located throughout the UK. Once MITIE had gathered sufficient data for gas, electricity and water consumption, going back to January 2008, the information was fed into a sophisticated software package, eSight, which identified where energy was being consumed.
MITIE’s energy management team was then able to identify what financial savings and CO2 emission reductions could be made providing payback times calculated in months. The work was carried out as part of MITIE’s CarbonCare offering which offers clients a roadmap for implementing carbon saving strategies that save money.
The seventeen Virgin Trains stations that were assessed as part of the BSI verification process contained a mixture of retail outlets, multi-storey car parks, all with extensive lighting. The stations also had many different third party tenants on site including retailers which made the data collection much harder. Many of the stations were consuming energy 24 hours a day which made the task of implementing energy reduction programmes quite a challenge.
Steve Robinson Safety & Environment Systems Manager from Virgin Trains said: “We couldn’t have gained this accreditation without MITIE’s ability to capture and then analyse where our energy was being consumed, and then suggest and implement strategies to save energy.”
Once the data was correctly collected and interpreted, MITIE implemented its solutions. These included installing smart wireless controls to reduce lighting consumption, installing timed control push buttons in waiting rooms to ensure the heating turns itself off after 15 minutes and the optimisation of heating, ventilating and air conditioning plant.
Richard Smith, MITIE Energy Services Director said: “The partnership demonstrates just how much train companies, public sector clients and other firms with large facility portfolios can achieve through good energy management. “