Sustainability
Humphrey Law is a family company that embraces the concept of environmental sustainability, that is, taking action that protects the environment through approaches such as using renewable resources and reducing pollution. As it happens we have found, in our seventy plus years of manufacturing that these environmental approaches invariably align with sound business practice.
We have installed 357 solar panels on the factory roof, and they generate 100 kW of electricity which means that every second sock we make is using electricity direct from the sun.
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But there are still residual emissions from our use of energy over and above our solar generated electricity. Currently we have calculated our non-solar electricity usage generates about 98 tonnes of carbon emission per year, and gas usage contributes another 62 tonnes. To offset these amounts one of the Law family has decided to plant an area of 20 hectares of eucalyptus trees on a country property. The CSIRO estimates that a hectare of trees are capable of absorbing a conservative 7.4 tons of carbon annually. So those trees will offset the great majority of our residual emissions described above. As at November 2019 the 20 hectares of land are being prepared for the tree planting as shown below.
The above activities add to our previous sustainability efforts which have included:
Installation of a new state-of –the-art dyeing machine which uses less water, uses less energy, uses less chemicals and reduces our waste.
Replacement of all fluorescent lighting with LED tubes throughout our factory, reducing energy use.
Recycling and repair of the old fluorescent fittings and removal of their ballasts to use for the new LED tubes. The removal of the ballasts improved our Power Factor. (An improved Power Factor means our energy supplier can supply more customers with the same cable size). Our lighting energy use has been decreased by 70% as a result of these two measures.
Installation of separate solar panels to provide hot water for our dyeing machines.
Renovation of our knitting room and installation of a low energy climate control system that works without the need for refrigerated air-conditioning. That in turn reduces knitting room raw material waste by accurately controlling humidity. The use of double glazing, extra insulation and recycling waste heat from another process reduces to zero, our winter heating cost in the knitting room. This environmentally sensitive project has cut energy costs, reduced waste, and improved product quality.
Re-use of cardboard boxes and plastic yarn cones within the factory, with ultimate disposal with other paper, plastic, glass and metal re-cycling.