Throughout January, staff at Belzona’s Head Office in Harrogate, UK, took part in the Company’s Big Energy Cycle initiative, spinning for an impressive combined total of 3536 minutes (58.93 hours) and measuring how much energy this would generate.
The Company hired two exercise bikes from a local gym so that staff could pair up to take part in ‘spinning’ sessions of between five and 30 minutes, and calculated how much energy would have been generated by the average person in the session’s duration.
Staff embraced the opportunity to take part, with 31 employees from a variety of departments enjoying the opportunity to exercise as well as to learn about their energy usage. Uptake was so high that, after initially hiring the bikes for a week, the cycle challenge was extended until the end of the month.
The average session lasted the full 30 minutes permitted, with participants doing their utmost to reach the 4000 kilowatt hours (kWh) needed to power Belzona for an entire day. Craig Tetley (Production Area Technology Leader), James Bradley (Production Operative) and Dagmara Mazur-Sosa (UK Sales Operations Manager) spun for the longest, accruing 450 minutes each.
At the conclusion of the challenge, staff had spun for 3536 minutes (58.93 hours), which was enough to power the site for just two minutes 33 seconds. This demonstrated the importance of monitoring energy usage as a month’s worth of physical effort equated to less than three minutes’ usage.
Mr Tetley and Mr Bradley (pictured above, left) said: “Spinning really brought us together, and it was fascinating to learn more about our energy consumption while taking the opportunity to be active at work.”
The joint initiative by Belzona’s Environmental Committee and Corporate Development Department aimed to help staff appreciate the huge amount of energy that is used by modern businesses, and thus the importance of conserving resources.
“In light of the current economic, cost of living and environmental crises, saving energy is as important as ever to both businesses and individuals. In January we asked staff to sign up to spin on exercise bikes, monitoring minutes to understand how long they would need to spin to generate enough electricity to power our Harrogate site. We hope to raise awareness of how precious energy is, as well as to provide tips and tricks on how to save energy both at home and at work.”
The initiative represents part of Belzona’s emphasis on sustainability as it aims to use polymeric repair and protection systems to prolong the life of industrial equipment, therefore negating the environmental consequences of replacing such equipment unnecessarily.
From improving efficiency in renewable sectors such as hydropower and wind energy to reducing the usage of heating and cooling systems through insulation solutions, Belzona is committed to helping businesses to reduce their energy usage.
Staff have also taken part in a number of sustainable events such as tree planting and acorn collections, as the Company looks to place sustainability at the heart of its mission.
By raising awareness of the importance of saving energy through initiatives such as the Big Energy Cycle, Belzona hopes to continue its commitment to a sustainable future through the conservation of manmade resources.
Belzona is continually planning projects to aid the local community, environment and charities, not only in Harrogate but across its other corporate offices in Miami (USA), Chonburi (Thailand), Ontario (Canada) and Jiangsu (China).
Content Creator, Belzona Polymerics Limited
