Wedge Group Galvanizing Ltd is proud to be leading the way amongst galvanizers nationwide in terms of its sustainable credentials.
The Group is wholly committed to conducting its business in an environmentally responsible way, with concern for the environment, and sustainability, at the heart of every process it undertakes.Wedge Group Galvanizing are at the forefront of its industry and is committed to adopting various processes and procedures which further enhance its sustainable qualities and ensure minimal impact on the environment.
Wedge incorporates and promotes the implementation of sustainable working practices into its core business, by allowing each of its 14 plants across the UK to develop, manage and control their own environmental impacts. We actively seek to ensure practices across the whole business are as sustainable as possible, despite there currently being no pressure from regulators to meet specific standards. The Group believes that the authorities will eventually introduce regulations which companies across the industry will be required to meet, and by this time, it will be well ahead of the game.
Rather than having a general policy that merely ticks a box, Wedge Group Galvanizing has developed bespoke guidelines that are wholly in-line with the nature of our business and which set out sustainability practices across the group, encompassing every physical building that the group occupies, as well as the materials and processes that we use, which all look to improve energy use and environmental performance.
We ensure that these aims are met through the provision of an Environmental Management System (EMS) framework that allows each plant to develop a site specific EMS to manage and control environmental impacts giving due regard to local circumstances. All business management systems must be maintained to meet or exceed the requirements, with each Director and General Manager being accountable for reinforcing the requirements of this policy.
The overarching guiding principles set out The Group’s aim to reduce the environmental impact of its operations and activities to a minimum by the prevention of pollution, waste minimisation and efficient use of its resources, and to continually promote energy-efficiency through the use of cost-effective, energy reduction methods.
In addition, every one of The Group’s 14 plants is signed up to the Government’s Climate Change Levy Agreement with milestone targets agreed to reduce the amount of energy used year-on-year.
A further method which has been implemented by Wedge is the re-use of ‘waste’ heat from the furnaces which are integral to the whole galvanizing process. Every one of The Group’s sites has installed heat exchanger units which transfer waste heat from the furnace back into the process, for use within both the pre-flux and de-grease tanks.
Inverter controls are used on the electrical motors within some systems, and an innovative low flume flux has been developed which ensures that emission limits are achieved with minimum use of energy-consuming abatement equipment.
As a private company, Wedge Group Galvanizing is able to look to the long-term and make plans which will benefit the environment, and enhance its sustainability credentials for years to come.
All new sites planned for development over the next few years and beyond, are being designed to incorporate these environmentally friendly systems as standard.