CASE STUDY/14
ROADSTONE–WOOD GROUP, A SUBSIDIARY OF CRH PLC
Roadstone-Wood uses IS393 to crush energy costs
Roadstone-Wood Group is
a wholly owned subsidiary
of CRH plc which has its
headquarters in Dublin.
CRH operates in 34 countries
worldwide, employing
around 92,000 people.
CRH has strong environmental policies
for conserving resources. It has received
international recognition for its environmental
achievements from the industry and other
stakeholders. To date, nine Roadstone-Wood
quarrying sector in Ireland to reach this
standard.
The implementation of the IS393 energy
management standard helped achieve:
•
Typical savings in energy use of 7%
(approx. 1.6 million kwh at one site).
•
Industry-leading benchmarking
and reporting.
•
A consistent framework for
implementation across a network
of sites.
•
A shared responsibility among
all company personnel for energy
performance.
•
A demonstration of the company’s
environmental philosophy ‘to be a
good neighbour’.
Turn off
the juice, when not in use!
Company and plant managers throughout
CRH are responsible for implementing the
environmental policy and achieving its
objectives. This responsibility extends to
divisional managing directors, the chief
executive and the CRH board. RoadstoneWood has company-wide ISO14001
locations. The pursuit of the Energy
Management Standard IS393 is seen as a
natural progression of ongoing improvement
in the delivery of its environmental
commitments.
Roll-out to eight sites
The main energy-intensive process conducted
by Roadstone-Wood is the ‘hot-mixing’ of
Blacktop (asphalt), a mixture of bitumen
and aggregates used for road and highway
surfaces. The aggregates are heated, then
coated with bitumen. After achieving IS393
at its site at Slane, Co Meath and embedding
energy management into the day-to-day
operation of the quarry, the company was
keen that the 7% energy savings and other
Environmental framework
An ambitious roll-out to eight additional
locations was planned.
CRH has developed some key policy
documents for all its member companies.
The company sees climate change not only
as a challenge but also as an opportunity
to operate and use its own resources more
The target was that each site would acquire
the standard within 12 months. The lessons
learned from Slane, and the operational
procedures developed there, meant that
products to help others reduce their CO2
emissions from energy use.
accreditation in this short time. The following
sites, all of which produce Blacktop, were
chosen to implement IS393: Belgard ,
Huntstown, Allen, Kilmacow, Bunratty, Galway,
Castlebar and Mallow.
Each location was responsible for
implementing IS393 and ensuring
means the standard is owned locally and
the expectations and targets are customised.
Each location appointed an Energy
Management Representative (EMR) with
overall responsibility for implementing IS393.
The EMR was responsible for putting together
personnel. A national support team assists
the local site teams. This includes:
•
Planning and Development Manager
•
Environmental Managers Kevin Donovan
and Colin Doyle.
•
Joyce and Marie O’Donovan.
•
Western Region Co-ordinator
Leonard Grogan.
•
Roadstone Dublin Optimisation Manager
Colin Fennelly.
This activity is overseen by Derry O’Sullivan,
the Technical Director for Roadstone
Provinces Ltd.
An aggressive timeline covering
February-December 2008 was set
All eight locations successfully achieved
certification in December 2008.
Implementation process
The EPIs are circulated to senior management
monthly. They are also displayed on
•
Using cheaper night-time electricity.
•
Examination of the requirement for
compressed air.
The importance of EPIs is summed up
•
Review of security lighting requirements.
Energy consultants carried out audits to
identify opportunities for improvements in
energy-management system. Energy teams
then developed an action plan targeting
weak areas of energy management, covering
personnel, technologies and management
processes.
The implementation approach involved
monthly meetings/workshops which
SEI chaired and facilitated through the
Agreement Support Manager (ASM) role.
Each workshop generally began with a series
of presentations by the ASM. Each location
then outlined to the group the work/progress
achieved in the previous four weeks. Each
group presentation lasted around 30 minutes.
implementation team: “We always knew we
were spending large proportions of our budget
on energy, but we didn’t realise how controllable
it was. The primary focus had always been
product quality. We now realise how closely
energy and quality are interlinked and we
now look at the production process in a
different way.”
Emissions from the Blacktop plants are
monitored and evaluated, with a focus on
This gives the plant operator direction on
the maintenance required to improve the
production process, and ensures that product
is adequately heated, while the combustion
Without this structured approach, the
Because monitoring and maintenance
programmes are carried out company-wide,
comparison between various production
The monthly forum also enabled each group
plants and operating procedures can be
to identify and discuss problems and solutions
made and recommendations disseminated
throughout the Roadstone-Wood group.
The graphs below show the EPI league
tables that are used to compare performance
Benchmarking
Energy performance indicators (EPIs) provide
management with the information required to
quickly evaluate energy performance. Energy
consumption can be compared to historic
records at a single plant, or compared with
other plants with similar operations.
More energy-saving
opportunities
night-time and out-of-hours energy baseloads typically made up over 15% of total
energy use. This has now been substantially
reduced. Other areas for energy savings at the
plants include:
prompting discussions and the sharing of
across the group.
A key aspect of the implementation process
organisation, to ensure shared ownership
of the project and to meet the rapid roll-out
timelines. ‘Toolbox Talks’ promoted the role of
initiatives included colouring competitions
awareness weeks, and suggestion boxes,
proposed energy-saving ideas.
Maintaining the
momentum
For the nine sites already accredited,
monthly IS393 meetings have been
replaced with quarterly meetings to
maintain the momentum and to continue
to share experience across the sites. The
implementation teams are looking at ways to
integrate IS393 more closely with ISO14001.
The company is also looking at how fuel used
in the delivery of products can be reduced.
This is a key theme for 2009.
An evaluation of where energy was being
As projects and EPIs were developed, the
implementation teams could highlight
Roadshow
Meanwhile, lessons learned about energy
savings are being passed on to smaller
sites that are unlikely to seek individual
accreditation.
Ten more sites plan to achieve accreditation
by December 2009.
•
Roadstone-Wood has developed an EPI based
product. It can now quickly track improvements
or deviations from expected norms.
•
RPL Monthly Blacktop Fuel EPI (litres per tonne)
RPL Monthly Blacktop Power (kwh per tonne)
TARGET
LOCATION 01
LOCATION 02
LOCATION 03
LOCATION 04
LOCATION 05
Wilton Park House, Wilton Place, Dublin 2
Teach Pháirc Wilton, Plás Wilton, Baile Átha Cliath 2
LOCATION 06
T. +353 1 808 2100
F. +353 1 808 2002
TARGET
LOCATION 01
[email protected]
www.sei.ie
LOCATION 02
LOCATION 03
LOCATION 04
LOCATION 05
LOCATION 06
SEI is funded by the Irish Government under the
National Development Plan 2007-2013 with
programmes part financed by the European Union.