Foster Refrigerator has taken energy efficiency one step further by encouraging employees to take part in the company’s first ever ‘Green Week’.    

Foster is already an energy efficient manufacturer - their products are independently tested to meet the Carbon Trust’s energy efficiency standards and Foster was the first UK refrigeration company to be awarded ISO 14001 accreditation for recognised international standards in environmental management. And the King’s Lynn based company has now enrolled staff into a new crusade to do their bit both at work and at home.  

For one week, from Tuesday 28 – Friday 31 August Foster staff were asked to think about their role in reducing the amount of CO2 they produce.  Many Foster staff have been doing their bit for years, for example Stuart Briston, one of Foster’s longest serving employees, and father and son Terry and Darren Gamble, Andy Harrod, Stuart Howlett and Nick Bensley who have been cycling to work almost every day since 1990.   However, Green Week has encouraged many more people to walk or cycle instead of driving, and those with longer journeys such as John Savage and Richard Oakes chose to do their bit by car sharing.  A competition to find the three greenest people at Foster also took place and prizes included vouchers for lifestyle sports shop Surf 55 (to put towards a new bike), a solar mobile phone and iPod charger and a wind up radio.  

Employees were sent tips and reminders such as turning off air conditioning, not to print emails unnecessarily, putting waste paper in the recycling bin and turning off PCs, monitors and mobile phone chargers when leaving the office.   The Energy Saving Trust was also on hand to give away free energy saving light bulbs and advice on how to reduce energy bills at home.   

In order to off-set their remaining carbon emissions during Green Week, Foster will be making a donation through www.puretrust.org.uk to financially support emissions reduction programmes around the world.  

Mandy Suiter, Marketing Coordinator at Foster helped to organise Green Week.  She said:  “I have been overwhelmed with just how enthusiastic staff have been about Green Week and would like to thank everyone for taking part.  Foster prides itself on being an energy efficient manufacturer and we wanted to find a way of encouraging our staff to get behind and get involved in our green efforts.  Green Week is just the start of an ongoing campaign to ensure everyone at Foster helps to reduce our carbon footprint and we are currently discussing how we can build on the success of Green Week over the coming months.”