Committing to becoming the most sustainable healthcare contract manufacturer in the UK is helping an Essex-based business secure several new orders.
Europlaz, which employs over 110 people at its Southminster facility, has invested more than £700,000 over the last six years in making its manufacturing operations more sustainable and making a positive impact on the communities it operates in.
To reinforce this bold strategy, the company has secured ISO:14001 environmental accreditation, installed solar panels to produce up to 68% of its energy needs, and announced its intention to be ‘net zero’ by 2045 - in line with NHS requirements.
Ellie Harrington, Europlaz’s sustainability officer (pictured right), said: “We are proud to manufacture products that save lives and want to extend this philosophy by making sure we have a positive Environmental, Social and Governance strategy (ESG) in place. This began six years ago, but the last 12 months have seen us really accelerate our investment in this area as we can see the difference it is making to our environmental footprint, the wellbeing of our staff, and the sectors we operate in.”
She continued: “For the first time ever, we have managed to calculate the carbon footprint of a product we manufacture. TIVA (Total Intravenous Anaesthesia Sets — pictured below) involves production and two-stage assembly — we have completely mapped the process so that we can look at ways where we can minimise waste, reduce energy and ultimately cut the carbon footprint involved. This is just the start, and we hope to create the greenest anaesthetist product ever made. We have now got another six products we are looking to do the same for.”
Europlaz, which is ISO13485-certified, operates from its ‘state of the art’ site on The Maltings Industrial Estate in Southminster, near Chelmsford. From here, the family-run business has invested £4 million into creating a world-class facility capable of injection moulding, assembly, product validation and access to modern cleanrooms, all certified to ISO Class 7 for the manufacture of Class I, Class II and Class III medical devices.
Most of its work is focused on helping medical device and healthcare businesses commercialise new technology, with recent success stories featuring a home dialysis machine, a patient friendly and easy-to-use breath-operated inhaler and a bio-artificial liver.
Ellie Harrington concluded: “Sustainability is a win-win. We know we are measuring and refining our production processes so that we can manufacture as green as we can. It also means we are meeting domestic and global healthcare standards, and this is already paying off. So far, we believe this approach has resulted in £650,000 of new work that we previously would have been excluded from.”