Greener Business Alliance Project Case Study 5

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.

Scholle Industries

Company profile

Scholle Industries Pty Ltd (Scholle) is the Australian subsidiary of the Scholle Corporation and specialises in the manufacture of flexible packaging. It has its headquarters in Adelaide and employs around 260 staff. Scholle was initially established to meet the needs of the wine industry but has since expanded to other segments of the food industry.

Manufacturing processes

Scholle manufacture a range of sizes in the “bag-in-box” container market from 2 L through to 1,500 L. There are four main processes within the Scholle plant.

Plastic injection moulding of fittings
The majority of bag fittings are made using injection-moulding techniques.

Film extrusion
Flexible packaging is produced using a plastic resin is extruded to a film

Lamination
Some of the extruded films are laminated with a metallised polyester, before being assembled in the bag room

Bag Making
The bag making room houses a patented process that assures high level of production quality.

Link to Yalumba

Scholle supply Yalumba with “bag in a box” packaging. This is generally delivered in bulk bins which each contain approximately 2,000 bags.

Action undertaken

An eco-efficiency audit was conducted at Scholle in March 2002 that 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 and were included into an Action Plan including:

• Reduced waste in various manufacturing processes, and
• Reduced energy consumption.
  

The following table provides a summary of the Action Plan.

AREA	ACTION	POTENTIAL BENEFITS
Bag Room	Reduce waste generation using new technology. Bag Room light fittings.	Less waste materials, reduced waste to landfill. New 28 W light fittings can provide the same output as older 30 or 40W fittings.
Air conditioning	Air conditioning set point increased.	Reduced electricity costs.
Slitter	Reduce waste generation, investigate potential recycling options	Less waste materials, reduced waste to landfill.
Clean Room	Install quick response roller door.	Reduced air loss from clean room area and reduced wasted energy.
Chiller System	Use of variable speed drives on the pumps and a primary/ secondary loop.	Possible energy saving of 35% - 45% of current running costs.
	Use of higher efficiency water cooled chillers rather then air cooled.
	Use of chilled water temperature reset. The set point of the chilled water could be increased from 6 degrees on light load days to say 9 degrees.
	Integrating the chilled water system so that a new higher efficiency centrifugal chiller could be installed in lieu of a reciprocating system.

Project outcomes

As a result of the project Scholle has received direct cost savings and identified the following specific outcomes:

Environmental benefits

Modifications have been made to bag room machine and have already achieved waste reduction targets. Total waste to landfill is trending down. A Victorian recycler is recycling some plastic waste material. Air conditioners controls adjusted, reducing energy consumption.

Economic benefits

Reduced waste generation has produced cost savings of $15,000/year, which is being invested to plant trees (100,000) to replace CO2 the company produces.

Other issues that have arisen include:

items outlined in the Action Plan were not completely implemented. Areas have been identified for electricity usage improvement and actions implemented, however modifications to machine 13 have been separated into three stages.

Scholle intends to install power factor correction device for the chiller system, however the use of variable speed drives does not appear feasible. There has been an overall downward trend in electricity consumption, possibly due to increased employee awareness.

This page was last modified 23-10-2007