At Somerlap Pallets, we are passionate about reducing our carbon footprint as a business. To that end, we’ve embarked on a journey towards Net Zero.

Since April 2019, we have been working closely with Gridimp, a Somerset-based provider of pioneering sustainable energy solutions.

What we wanted to do

We approached Gridimp with a set of key objectives:

• to reduce our energy costs
• increase our energy efficiency
• minimise our negative impact on future generations

Gridimp helped us to monitor our overall energy usage and work out where changes could be made to achieve our goals.

How we worked with Gridimp to achieve our net zero goals

We became one of the earliest adopters of Gridimp’s revolutionary smart energy solution impCabinet. Gridimp installed batteries and solar inverters on our site, monitored by their onsite impHub controller.

This incredible piece of technology makes real-time energy management decisions based on our overall energy usage. It is aware of factors such as the current price of energy, and minimises costs to us by decreasing our energy use at peak times. The impHub makes intelligent decisions that are both economically and environmentally conscious. With this in place, Somerlap Pallets have been able to reduce our carbon emissions whilst saving money on our energy bills – a win-win.

What the results were

• In our first year alone of working with Gridimp, we managed to lower our carbon emissions by an incredible 70 tonnes.
• At peak times, we reduce our energy use – then sell the energy generated by our onsite solar panels back to the grid. We now effectively generate our own energy, and were able to withstand the extraordinary increase in energy prices in the UK far better than we otherwise would have done.
• When it comes to charging electric vehicles and forklifts, we use our renewable solar energy during they day, then top them up at night when the energy tariff is reduced – which also puts less strain on the grid.

What comes next?

What’s next for Somerlap Pallets? As we now receive around a third of former energy spend back in flexible revenue, there is more opportunity to fund our other net zero goals.

We aim to further reduce our diesel usage by purchasing more electric vehicles, and we hope to eventually achieve absolute energy independence and further reduce our carbon emissions. Thanks to the ingenuity of Gridimp and the commitment of the Somerlap team, these goals are very attainable.