Reducing Carbon Emissions, Improving The Bottom Line - Germancraft

Here at Germancraft cabinets we’ve been established on the Gold Coast for 20 years. In 2007 we had outgrown our factory at Molindinar, which was 900 square meters. In that year we decided to build this new facility. In 2008 we moved into this building and it’s actually shocked us the amount of savings we’ve made through energy savings, water savings, all the way through there. And one of the great advantages that we’ve actually found is that the people here, the culture that’s developed has been wonderful. You can’t put a price on it. Dollar-wise, $70,000 a year we save, which is not in significant in these economic times. Every business needs an opportunity. These things don’t cost much to do, they’re very practical, and they’re very easy. It’s just a matter of managing your waste, your water, and your power. And $72,000 plus the social implications, it’s absolutely fabulous and I can only encourage people to do it. Return for investment, there’s a lot of dollars to be saved, there’s a lot of carbon to be saved and one of the best parts of the investment is you get teamwork with your players, all of your blokes, your customers, our suppliers, our workforce – they’re all happy to do these things and they get a buzz out of this. There’s a lot more to business than just making dollars, and the return socially and the environment, the culture we’ve got here is fabulous. The advice I’d give to other businesses is not to get too boiled up and wrapped up in the science of the matter. It’s not really science that we’re dealing with; it’s practical stuff that does make a difference. The departments are out there and they’re free and they fund and they give us grants and they come into your business. And what they’ll do is they’ll look at it from the outside. And that’s part of being in business is how often do we say “how good am I doing.” You haven’t got any place to go. you go to QMI, they’ll teach you, they’ll benchmark you to world’s best practices both environmentally and in manufacturing - and that’s the place to go. Don’t be frightened, put your hand up and get into these departments because it will be the best advice and you will profit from it.