A February 2022 report from the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, in which an analysis of UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions are explained in text and graph form, provides a clear picture of the progress being made and the improvement being recorded as society switches-on to the need for action on all fronts.
Link the report to countless other statements being issued by eco-conscious organisations and businesses and a clear picture presents itself: emissions reduction and measures to achieve that goal have become the new ‘cool’ and are now part of everyday thinking.
From the largest to the most innocent and least offending organisations, all have become active players in the race to reach net zero, and keen to publicise their efforts and show off their credentials at every turn. In that quest, the quarrying and aggregates sector has a position of importance – welcomed or not – sitting in the front row of industries not simply in the matter of exhaust emissions from plant and vehicles, but in other respects that include noise pollution, dust, and explosive emissions.
Large operators in the sector are aware of the responsibilities that rest upon them. Better still, they have the resources, the manpower – staff or outside experts – needed to set policy, set goals, oversee strategy and implementation, with the communications muscle required to ‘virtue signal’ their contribution.
With experts on hand, they can broadcast their efforts in a way that would give others a modus operandi to follow whilst promoting the benefits that their measures and investments in equipment and controls can bring. Biggest return can be found in the neighbourly goodwill their efforts will attract, in employee relations and recruitment (staff like being part of a socially responsible enterprise), and in the broader acclaim that good PR and publicity can bring.
Away from the giant corporates, the UK is dotted with many medium-to-compact size operators and specialist aggregate producers for whom the development and management of complex programmes may pose difficult, only because of the time and personnel required to write and progress a programme. Nonetheless, those with the determination to be active players in the global emissions reduction drive should not be constrained.
One major and demonstrable way in which that can be done is through their equipment purchases – on the production, transportation, and materials handling fronts. One essential equipment maker, Finnish crusher manufacturer Metso, has shown themselves to be fully in-step with the changes needed, evident in their recent introduction of a new Lokotrack EC diesel-electric crushers range.
Launched at a conference of European distributors held in their Tampere, Finland headquarters – at which their UK & Ireland distributor, McHale Plant Sales was presented with a ‘Best in Marketing’ award – the new Lokotrack EC range is comprised of two models: a LT400J 68-ton mobile jaw crusher designed for the primary crushing of hard rock and recycled aggregates, and a 50-ton mobile LT350C cone crusher for secondary and tertiary crushing.
Both configured to be seamlessly combined with each other and with Lokotrack mobile screens to produce high quality aggregates, the LT350C is equipped with the new Nordberg HP350e cone crusher and the LT400J with the proven Nordberg C120 jaw crusher, instrumental features in delivering high capacity.
Amongst the McHale team present at the EC range introduction was managing director, Tim Shanahan. Commenting, he said, “The introduction of the new Lokotrack EC models provides an important extra option for aggregates producers in circumstances where zero emissions, the cost-saving benefits of electric power, and the convenience of transportability, within the worksite and from site-to-site, are a major consideration.”
In receiving their award from Metso, Shanahan and his McHale colleagues were recognised for ‘the success in marketing and sales that the company has brought to Metso’ – the focus of which fell on the work done to communicate their appointment as their distributors in the UK, and in the years since 2015 in Ireland and Northern Ireland markets.
Integral elements in the marketing communications programme included the opening of premises in Tamworth and Edinburgh, attendance at ScotPlant and Hillhead exhibitions, and on-going programme of customer communications.
