Scoil Bhride BNS

Scoil Bhride / Tesco Case Study 2009


On foot of receiving our Green School Energy Flag March 2009 we embarked on the ESBIE. / An Taisce Energy Competition. In view of Tesco Ireland having signed up as a business with the project we were happy to learn we had been chosen to link up with our local Tesco Store in Cloncollig, Portarlington Rd, Tullamore.

After making some enquiries with Tesco Head Office our first initial visit occurred when Michelle Mahon, Corporate Affairs, Tesco Ireland and Energy Champion of the store Chrstian Scally visited the school to plan the details of the project. After some discussion a date was decided for our school to make a visit to the local store. The date decided was Tuesday 10th March 2009, and Christian already had a plan of the outline of the visit. See below

Time Topic Who
10 mins Welcome and introductions School and Energy Champion
10 mins Explain role and responsibilities of Energy Champion
Energy Champion
15 mins Explain what Tesco are doing to save the planet
Energy Champion
15 mins Show Energy video (answers any questions)
Energy Champion
30 mins Conduct tour of the store cover the following
" Energy Management KPI's. Show back
" Office Motion Detector Lights
" Show lighting controls for shop floor and refrigeration
" Show energy saving features on shop floor show and tell
Energy Champion
10 mins " Tell you about all the audits that are carried out Energy Champion
10 mins Questions and Answers School and Energy Champion
20 mins Snack in the canteen
2 hours Finish


And it was decided at that meeting that as follow up some of the Tesco team would make a visit to our school.

On the 10tth March it was decided to bring all of our Green Committee as it was very representative of all the classes Our secretary had hired the bus to take us to the store and all were quite looking forward to the visit. On arrival we were greeted by Christian and he led us to the meeting room. What followed were introductions and an outline of the visit. The boys introduced themselves Christian proceeded to outline his role and responsibilities in the store. The Energy Champion's role is to oversee energy use in Tesco. If there is a problem, people come to him. .If a fault is detected, the Champion contacts M2 (maintenance 2) and reports the fault to them. They send people to fix the problem.
"He goes around every week and talks to the staff about how they should save energy"……Mark
And Tesco now have an Energy Champion in every store.















Background History of the Store…

The Energy Champion described how Tesco originated. Our committee enjoyed hearing about how Jack Cohen had founded Tesco in 1919 when he began to sell surplus groceries from a stall in the East End in London. The name came about after a shipment of tea was bought from T.E. Stockwell. Cohen made new labels using the first three letters of the suppliers name (TES) and the first two letters of his surname (C0) forming the word TESCO. We discovered that Tesco are in 13 countries - USA UK, Ireland, Poland, Czeckoslovakia, Slovakia, Hungary, Turkey, China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. They are the 50th biggest company in the world, (ASDA being the biggest). There are thousands of people working in Tesco and millions of people shop there.

What Tesco are doing to save the Planet…

Christian proceeded to explain the measures they are taking to combat climate change, to save energy and to preserve the planet. He continued to explain their Carbon Footprint



Resources used by the company include
" lots of energy,
" lots of water and paper,
" lot of transport and
" a lot of pollution (plastic)
Greenhouse Gases - Tesco footprint comprises of :
" 68% electricity,
" 10% refrigeration,
" 15% diesel / oil,
" 6% natural gas

Tesco have reduced footprint from 360,000 to 180.000 tonnes Reduction of 50% !!




Beginning to put carbon footprint on the back of products…





Then we had opportunity to look at their Energy Video which included their Audit checklist, Spot checks, the reasons why freezer vents can't be blocked, and the new classification of Light bulbs A to F.

The Energy champion was happy to explain and answer any questions from the group. We were very interested to hear of the office Motion detector lights When everything is very quiet, the lights will go off. If we wave our hands in the air they will come back on again…
And so on to a tour of the store We started with the back and outside of the store.

Tour of the Plant

We were taken on a tour of the store showing us the Energy management KPI's and all that was happening at the back of the store. 70% of the waste from the store is recycled. Their aim is to recycle 100% by 2010! Recycling facilities are also offered to customers



If the cardboard was not crushed it would stretch for miles…….


Crates are used for sausages meats and vegetables….



Christian explained the importance of keeping doors to exits closed……




Energy Saving Devices
We learned that €30 million was spent on energy saving technology. Tesco decided to go into this in a positive way to try and meet their targets, Energy saving devices included
" Lights going on / off automatically in a room
" Energy efficient light bulbs
" Energy efficient ovens
" Energy efficient fans - It takes air from the fridges and channels it around the shop
" Energy efficient fridges and freezers
"
Reducing Transport Costs

"Tesco now use new trucks that have two floors and they run on biofuel. They used to be full navy but now they are white on top to reflect the sun. They have a tracking system which prints out a report to see which driver is driving too fast which means he is making a greater output of CO 2"….....Mark

Trucks drive from Dublin and when they drop their load they go to Carroll meats or Glenisk dairies - so they have a full load going back also

Lighting




" Night trading lights come on at 10.00pm. Half the lights go off.
" Expensive items are always well lit - even at night.


We were astounded to hear a 30 day ESB bill for the store had amounted to €46,000, the same as lighting up 460 houses !!



Tour of the shop floor and all the audits that are carried out


We saw the lighting controls for the shop floor and refrigeration and all the energy saving features on the shop floor…












Cody checked out the Energy efficient ovens…



Energy efficient fans - take air from fridges and channel it around the shop…


"If a vent is blocked the motor on top of the roof will have to work harder and that uses more energy which increases the output of carbon dioxide and increases the chance of greenhouse gases"…Mark



Energy efficient fridges and freezers…





All smiles at the fruit and veg.........

TV's and computers are off from 10.00 pm to 8 am……


Back to the Board room for some feed back and some questions and answers. We had seen and learned so much…






Snack in the canteen was a real treat! Juice, sausages and rolls…. Yummy!!!




We had such a wonderful day at the Tesco store and were looking forward to the Energy Champion's return visit to our school. We had learned so much !!















My Trip to the Tesco Store 10th March 2009


My brief description of the visit…..It was an extremely good place to see. I loved it….Michael It was a great day for the Green Team getting to visit Tesco…Eoin First he told us what they were doing, second he brought us around Tesco and third we had some food…Hubert

The most interesting thing I learned today was… that lighting an office over night wastes enough energy to heat water for 1,000 cups of tea…Robert That Tesco try really hard to get the store to save lots of energy…Michael The amount of money they have to spend on their electricity bill…Mark The fridges, they need to work harder when the vent is blocked, when some boxes are left down…Patrick

The most enjoyable part of the visit was…It was the cafeteria…Keir The café…Kyle When he brought us around…Hubert When we were at the back of Tesco..…Robert I thought the sensor lights were cool….Michael The tour of Tesco and at the back looking at the compressed boxes……Eoin The video Christian showed us…Mark

What information we learned that I think we could try in our school…Keep as clean as possible and keep as green as possible…Keir Having the sensor lights in our school…Hubert Tell people when they have to turn off their lights and go checking them…Robert Use the energy efficient light bulbs…Mark

Why I am looking forward to the Tesco team visiting our school…..I think it will be good…Keir To show the Tesco Champion what we are doing to help the environment….Hubert Because the Energy Champion showed us really interesting stuff so we want them to come and see our school now…Robert Because they're going to get a big surprise with how hard we try…Michael To get more ideas…Eoin We might learn a couple of tips that we could use for Green Schools….Mark Looking forward to seeing what he thinks about our school!…Patrick






























The Return Visit to Scoil Bhride








Monday 23rd March Christian paid a visit to Scoil Bhride to see what we were up to with regard to energy saving measures and conservation. On his earlier initial visit he had been very impressed with a lot of our signs and posters and said this was very evident as he walked in the door.



First we all gathered as a committee in the ICT room where we had prepared a power point presentation on our Energy saving Journey over the past two years also with mention to our Litter and Waste programme. All committee members were quick to elaborate on the various clips eg How committee was set up Energy audit Energy projects that went on in the school Action days etc.




Then it was on to a tour of the school. Patrick, Mark and Robert were delighted to give Christian a guided tour of the school showing him the various features

First stop was at the office where Del our secretary explained to the Champion how she constantly encourages staff to photocopy both sides of a page and where she uses the paper from the reuse tray whenever possible.




Christian checked out our notice board where we keep snippets of all that's topical that's going on in our Green School Programme


Going into the class rooms gave him an opportunity to see our waste disposal system in operation. He saw our 4 tier waste disposal system recycling, landfill, composting bin and paper for re use tray.







He was very impressed with a lot of the project work that was on display on the corridors. Projects included renewable and non renewable energies, fossil fuels, Climate change and its impact and effects.





Even though it was wet and windy the team ventured outside to show the Christian the gardens and the composter.











Back inside we had a look at our planet house



Christian was very impressed but mentioned that we possibly could be using a more energy efficient bulb and that would seriously give us a saving on our electricity bills.

He thoroughly enjoyed his day and enjoyed a coffee and a chat with staff and the Priomhoide before returning to the store

Evaluation

Overall Scoil Bhride really enjoyed taking part in this project. It was a great opportunity and a novel idea to link with a business and discover the measures they were taking towards energy conservation. It was also heartening to note that the business sector seemed to be very impressed with the measures we were taking as a school al be it on a much smaller scale We feel it was well worth doing and have promised Tesco a copy of this case study and we hope to invite them back for our Energy Flag raising ceremony this June !!!

If we were fortunate to win some prize money in this competition we would spend it on measures to renovate our present water usage eg.

" a water conservation system
" A system to preserve the gathering of water
" Collection tanks for rainwater