Honda Logistics, Swindon
Honda drive towards “zeroing” carbon usage with a lighting upgrade at their UK logistics site, from Tamlite Lighting.
Honda is one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world. Their warehouses handle the distribution of cars, motorcycles, power products and industrial-warehousing motors for the European market. This all comes from the Honda Motor Europe Logistics (HMEL) division, which has 7 sites throughout the continent.
The UK base, Swindon, was founded in 1987, and distributes parts, motorcycles and power products to dealerships around the country.
In 2011 Honda established the Honda Environmental and Safety Vision. This requires each of Honda’s global business sites to “engage in the reduction of all environmental impacts”, with the reduction of carbon high on the agenda.
As part of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), the HMEL site underwent a plan to reduce energy consumption. Identifying a significant lighting upgrade was an effective way to achieve this.
In partnership with CEF Swindon, Tamlite Lighting designed and supplied a lighting solution for the HMEL to help meet their objectives.
The scope for the lighting design included replacing the existing lighting system with a significantly more energy efficient lighting scheme in the warehouse and office building.
Warehouse and Logistics
The metal halide fittings previously used to illuminate the 400,000 sq. ft warehouse at the site were insufficient for Honda to meet carbon reduction targets. This was because they were extremely inefficient. The existing fittings also incurred large maintenance costs and did not provide sufficient illumination. As a result you receive unwanted shadows, inconsistent lighting and glare.
Jacky Roche, Facilities Co-Ordinator at HMEL, commented, “We needed to replace metal halide bulbs which were to be phased out as part of an EU plan to eliminate use of energy wasting bulbs.”
“In order to reach the desired lux level, the fittings needed to be switched on around 15 minutes prior to use. Consequently, this slowed production and was a waste of energy.”
As part of the solution for Honda, high efficacy EXPO luminaires were specified, with Vision Lighting Controls. Individual control of each luminaire is enabled, so Honda only use the lighting where and when it was required.
Previously, the lighting in the warehouse had been controlled in zones, and only allowed the lights to be switched on or off. The lighting design specified luminaires that dimmed after 5 minutes of inactivity, substantially reducing energy consumption. As well as energy efficiency, worker safety is crucial to HMEL, so by providing consistent light distribution, shadows are minimised and the likelihood of accidents is reduced.
Tamlite designed a lighting solution for the warehouse that provided energy savings of over £55,000 per year, with an ROI of under 4 years.
