Carbon neutral testing

Seaward Electronics’ latest electrical installation tester, the Powertest 1557, has become the industry’s first carbon neutral test instrument. As part of company plans to reduce its carbon footprint, the company is implementing a series of environmental measures to ensure that the complete Seaward product range will be carbon neutral within the next 18 months.
With the introduction of this campaign, the first Seaward product to be declared carbon neutral is the company’s new PowerTest 1557.

The smallest and most lightweight instrument in its class, the Powertest 1557 is a compact all in one installation tester that enables contractors to meet their 16th Edition and Part P electrical testing obligations.

As part of a comprehensive environmental audit across all of its manufacturing facilities, raw materials procurement and waste management processes, Seaward calculated that each Powertest 1557 handheld tester was responsible for producing 21kg of CO2.

To help offset this Seaward is introducing a number of new long term energy efficiency and environmental improvements.

These include switching energy supplies to renewable sources and green tariffs. It is also setting up new arrangements for waste management and recycling at its County Durham manufacturing plant, putting timers on switches and appliances, making lighting system changes throughout its buildings and changing all stationery to recycled grades.

As well as making these wide ranging operational and practical changes, Seaward will also be using carbon offsetting programmes to make an immediate impact in reducing the company’s carbon footprint.

As a result, manufacture of the Powertest 1557 will be offset by investments in a series of renewable energy and efficiency projects in the developing world.

Rod Taylor, Seaward Managing Director, explained that environmental awareness is now a key issue that has the potential to impact all areas of the business: “The aim is to reduce our carbon footprint as a business by 50% in three years and to make all our products carbon neutral in a considerably shorter time.

“Climate change has moved rapidly from being a fringe concern to a key business issue. It is not only the sensible thing to do for any responsible business, but it is increasingly becoming a determining factor in whether or not contracts and orders are won or lost.

“Having now established a new set of environmental principles we are committed to monitoring our performance and minimising the effect of our activities on the local, regional and global environment.”