Local company 'patents' EMS

Ellis Patents are a thriving plastic mouldings company. They design and manufacture specialist electrical cable cleats and pipe fixings worldwide to companies including Power Generation, Oil and Gas (Onshore and Offshore), Marine and Construction. They also offer sub-contracting moulding and can design, manufacture the tools and injection mould plastic to specific requirements and have completed projects for Transportation, Engineering, Construction and Consumable markets.

They are a relatively small business with only 43 employees and manufacture components for some of the most well known engineering firms in Britain, including the London Underground and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. Much of their success is built on their technological initiatives and flexibility to design and produce new products quickly and efficiently in large quantities.

Ellis Patents are largely influenced by their consumers. Some of the companies they supply have called for more evidence of good environmental practice. This is a common issue arising in the commercial world. Suppliers are coming under increasing pressure to enhance their environmental performance. Ellis Patents already complies with some of the latest testing and quality regulations and as the business is looking to expand, they will be able to incorporate a new environmental management system and improve their environmental performance and efficiency.

The company's initial involvement with the York and North Yorkshire Business Environmental Forum was made when Business Link Advisor Jim Jervis got in touch with colleague Katie Harvey to find out how the company could get onto an environmental management course. Several months later, the company has recently completed an Environmental Policy and Environmental Management System (EMS) course which is enabling Technical Manager, Danny Macfarlane to manage the implementation of the system at work.

Although the company is still in the early stages of environmental development, they have already made significant progress in a number of areas: the firm recycles all types of plastic waste and cardboard (they take the plastic waste to Econoplas; a plastic recycler near Scarborough, which consequently lowers the number of skips sent to landfill, and associated costs); the company has purchased new pallets which are specially designed for the safer storage of oil; they have invested in some environmentally beneficial and technologically efficient equipment, for example, waste plastic mould recyclers and automated paint mixing tools, which have been fitted to the injection moulding machines and reduce paint and plastic waste. The company has also recently had a visit from Action Energy which helped the firm to find heat redistribution systems for the factory floor.