Member Article

West Yorkshire packaging specialist invests £190k in green credentials

West Yorkshire-based thermoformed packaging specialist Leeds Vacuum Formers (LVF) has invested £100k to enhance its green credentials

The investment is intended to support a series of environmentally friendly initiatives, with an additional £90k set aside for a second phase of development later this year.

The company also recycles over 90% of all waste produced, and where possible all products are made from rPET, which means they already contain a minimum of 50% post-consumer waste.

Nigel Coates, managing director of LVF, said: “When it comes to green credentials the packaging industry doesn’t rate highly – tarred as it is with criticism about supposedly unnecessary amounts of packaging on various products.”

“Our intention is to change this attitude, and one of the ways we feel we can achieve this is by ensuring we do everything within our means to reduce our environmental impact.”

“Any business, no matter what industry it operates in, has an obligation to the environment and we’re no different.”

Amongst the key green developments at LVF are: an £80,000 investment in a 70kw solar panel system on the roof of its Hunslet Business Park headquarters in Leeds in 2013, with a second phase planned for summer 2014, which would take the investment to £160k and upgrade the system to 150kw, a £20k investment in LED lighting for use throughout the company’s production and warehouse facilities, with an additional £10k earmarked for bringing the offices in line with the rest of the property.

LVF’s commitment to changing attitudes towards the packaging industry also extends to its choice of suppliers, with the company sourcing over 90% of all materials from within a 25-mile radius of Leeds.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .