Greener Business Alliance Project Case Study 1

While some details may have changed since this case study was undertaken, the principles and the positive outcomes, both financial and environmental, remain the same and are transferable to any business.

Anthony Smith Australasia Pty Ltd (ASA)

Company profile

ASA has been producing products for the wine industry for over 25 years. Currently they employ around 75 staff and export products to Asia, South Africa, the Americas and Europe. ASA produce synthetic closures and capsules for sparkling and still wine. They manufacture over 400 million capsules per year, approximately 50% of the Australian market. The capsules provide protection to the closure in the wine bottles and add to the aesthetics of the product. Until recently ASA also imported and processed natural cork for the wine industry.

Manufacturing processes

Since 1998, ASA has been manufacturing their own synthetic wine closure (Integra)at their production facility in Regency Park, Adelaide. ASA ’s capsule section manufactures aluminium foil and polylaminate sparkling wine hoods and PVC and PET capsules for wine bottles.

Link to Yalumba

ASA supply Yalumba with PVC capsules, champagne hoods and synthetic wine closures.

Action undertaken

An eco-efficiency audit at ASA in March 2002 inspected and reviewed the company facilities and activities.

This included assessment of the:

• Supply chain (transportation and logistics)
• Inputs including energy usage (electricity, gas), and water usage
• Outputs including waste generation, and products

Several eco-efficiency initiatives were identified during the program including:

• reduction of PVC and foil waste,
• adjusting the length of capsules,
• reducing multi colour printing
• reclaiming heat in the printing process, and
• reducing greenhouse emissions.
  

The following table provides a summary of the Action Plan.

AREA	ACTION	POTENTIAL BENEFITS
Capsules	Work with customers to reduce the use of PVC capsules in preference for PET or aluminium foil	Reduced greenhouse emissions and increased recycling. Reduced waste materials.
	Work with customers to see if a reduced capsule length size from 60mm to 55mm is acceptable.	Reduced material use. Reduced landfill.
Capsule foil disk	Replace foil disk with alternative material to make capsule from one material.	Lower capsule costs. Allow better recycling of capsules. If not recycled, increases PVC to landfill.
Capsule multi colour printing	Encourage customers to reduce the number of colours.	Savings in production material costs, waste and greenhouse gas emissions.
Capsule heat reclamation	Investigate the use of air-to-air heat exchanger to reclaim heat from printing heaters.	Reduced electricity consumption.
Capsule printing area	Replace Air motors with electric motors (identified by ASA).	Reduced energy consumption.
	Grouping sales orders and reviewing process procedures to increase process efficiency (identifiedby ASA).	Reduced energy consumption and waste generation.
Integra	Consider reduced lighting levels and temperatures.	Reduced electricity consumption.
	Change Integra from using preform to a form sealpack (identified by ASA).	Reduced packaging.
Integra moulding machine	Reduce air leaks.	Reduced energy consumption.
Integra air conditioning	Air conditioning set point increased.	Reduced electricity consumption.
Greenhouse gas emissions	Take the Greenhouse Challenge.	Reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Entire site	Replace lighting timers with day/night sensors.	Reduced electricity consumption.
	Sign National Packaging Covenant.	Green image.

Project outcomes

As of June 2003 ASA has identified the following specific outcomes from the project:

Environmental benefits

The reduction of air leaks in the moulding machine has seen a reduction in energy consumption. Replacement of lighting timers with day/night sensors has reduced electricity consumption. Changed Integra packaging from using preform to a form seal pack reduced waste.

Economic benefits

A saving of 50L/s of air has decreased electricity consumption with an estimated saving of $8,000 per annum. Additional savings will be made through use of day/night sensors.

Customers have been given incentives to use 2 or less colours in printing, generating savings in production material costs and wastage.

Sales team and scheduling have been grouping orders to improve set up efficiency which provides additional up time and waste reduction.

Other issues that have arisen include:

Perceived PET quality issues within the industry. Currently not promoting PET capsules, but accepting orders.

Reducing capsule length size is difficult due to the perception by wineries of increased cost to fill bottles as a result.

PVC top disk trialled successfully at Yalumba bottling line, however many other lines rely on detecting the metal in the capsule for quality checks. PVC top disc product is not viable for only one company.

Currently investigating gas heating as an alternative to reduce electricity consumption.

Analysis of replacing air motors with electric motors identified cost savings of $900/year.

As a result of the GBAP, ASA has received direct cost savings. However, due to a change over in personnel the driving force behind the project was lost and a vacuum of knowledge existed. Overall the project has been successful and has renewed ASA ’s focus on energy and the environment within the business.

This page was last modified 23-10-2007