Personal Blog of Ellen MacArthur

Last week saw some fascinating opportunities to discuss new ideas and expand on our knowledge database about how the manufacturing sector is trying to reduce energy use in its plants and processes.

We were up North for a few days visiting Liverpool and Nottingham. Our first assignment whilst up there was a visit, as a guest of E.ON, to the Pilkington Glass research centre on the outskirts of Liverpool. Everyone in the UK looks through glass almost every day of their lives, and I guess – as you don’t really see it (!) - it’s one of those things that you tend to take for granted.

On arrival at the research centre, I was amazed by the size of the company. There were close to 400 people working there, all studying the glass of the future. Trying to work out what the right glass is for the right environment. Everything from glass that lets the light in (i.e. for a solar panel) to glass that keeps the heat out, to glass that keeps the heat in, to glass that makes the water run off!

The process of making it is quite amazing and involves running the molten sand over liquid tin. The heat produced is absolutely incredible, with the actual building which houses the glass production having to be re-built every 13 years as it warps!  

I had not realised just how much energy goes into making this everyday product, and the more complicated it is, the more energy seems to go into it. As an example, toughened glass has to be heated twice, so has loads more energy in it than normal glass. Pilkington make single glazed, double glazed and a whole host of other types of glazing – including a really thin double glazed unit which had tiny dots in it that hold the glass apart. We could not have been made to feel more welcome, nor could we have had a better and more inspiring presentation about what the challenges are in that industry.

I also had the pleasure of speaking at the ACC conference centre in Liverpool that evening. The conference centre is an amazing place in itself and claims to be one of Europe’s most environmentally sound conference centres. I was speaking to members of the Liverpool Daily Post Business Club and some of E.ON’s business customers. It was an interesting audience, with a real variety of people, including Richard Farleigh (who was previously on Dragon’s Den) - who all had their own stories about the challenges and triumphs of trying to run more energy efficient businesses.