ABSTRACT
Perkins Engines manufactures a wide range of diesel engines at its Northamptonshire site. The company's management and workforce had been interested in reducing environmental impact for some time, but the visit by two of the firm's shop stewards to a World Class Manufacturing course in early 1996 proved to be the catalyst for a major savings initiative. The seminar, organised by the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union and supported by the Energy Efficiency Best Practice Programme (EEBPP), was attended by union members Tony Ellingford and Paul OHearn. The session on energy saving and waste minimisation caught the shop stewards imagination and they realised that improvements could be implemented at Perkins Engines. The Trade Unions and Sustainable Development Advisory Committee (TUSDAC) was established in 1998 to mirror the activities of ACBE, the Advisory Committee for Business and the Environment. Dr Uly Ma was trained as a metallurgist and worked in metals development, fuel gases and marketing.
