JN Bentley Environmental Performance 'Highly Commended' By BITC

Online, August 14, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Announced at BITC's annual Awards for Excellence Gala Dinner at the Majestic Hotel in Harrogate, the commendation recognises a third year of consecutive improvement in BITC's Environment Index survey.
The Environment Index is an online survey tool that looks at all aspects of environmental management and performance, and is valuable for benchmarking progress both internally and against peers.

Completion of the Index also demonstrates the company's commitment to being environmentally responsible to its clients.

JN Bentley's 2012 Index score of 94% is 19% above the regional average, and secures the company a 'Gold' rating for 2012.

This result highlights the continual improvement JN Bentley has made in the last three years, and builds on the 'Significant Improver' award that was won in 2011.

In its submission, JN Bentley was able to report a number of improvements in environmental performance, including:

• 97% of waste (excluding soils) diverted from landfill - an 11% improvement on 2010;

• Tonnes of CO2e per £100,000 turnover reduced from 7.82 (2010) to 6.72 (2011) - a 14% reduction in real terms; and

• An 84% increase in environmental near miss reporting - from 107 reports in 2010 to 197 in 2011. This illustrates an improved awareness of environmental issues, and is data that can be used to prevent incidents from occurring in the future.

The Index submission also highlighted the company's commitment to the renewables sector.

JN Bentley is using its expertise to promote the use of renewable energies to existing clients in the water industry. The company is currently assessing a number of potential sites and working with clients to identify hydropower opportunities within their existing assets - looking at in-line systems on existing pipe work, run-of-river schemes on water-company owned weirs, as well as more traditional reservoir based schemes.

A specialist subsidiary company - the Linton Falls Hydroelectric Power Company - has also been established specifically to develop, own and operate hydroelectric power stations.

The first power station (pictured above) is situated in the Yorkshire Dales and started producing sustainable grid energy in late 2011.

It is forecast to generate 500,000kWh per annum directly into the national grid, which equates to 84% of the total grid energy demand across all of JN Bentley's owned and operated offices.