Graham & Brown switches to green energy

Blackburn-based wallpaper manufacturer Graham & Brown is to source all of its energy from renewable sources.

The move will see the company, which employs 500 people around the world, reduce its carbon footprint by 30 per cent over the next two years.

The decision follows Graham & Brown, which spends around £2m on energy, working Nelson-based energy broker Businesswise Solutions.

The company now uses real-time data to monitor energy consumption across all their sites, using technology which is so precise that they’ll be able to work out how much energy is required to manufacture a single roll of wallpaper.

Graham & Brown has long been a champion of environmental concerns. It installed a ground-breaking heat transfer system two decades ago, was one of the first manufacturers to go to water-based inks and uses exclusively FSC accredited paper sources.

Andrew Graham, chief executive of Graham & Brown, said: "Even for a big manufacturer like us we were unable to truly understand our energy cost until we joined forces with Businesswise Solutions.

"When it came to buying paper, ink and machinery we were all over it but buying energy was a bit of a dark art. What Businesswise Solutions has done is open up the market and make it transparent and educate the customer. Everything is data-driven. 

"By April 2022 all the electricity that we buy into Graham & Brown will be from a renewable source. It’s a massive win for our carbon footprint."

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