Reducing Waste: Brenco Industries

Pleased to be saving money are Brenco president Steve Hiem, operations manager Chris Moore, and plant manager Alan Massender.

Brenco Metal Processing & Fabricating has achieved considerable energy savings via simple initiatives undertaken as part of the Power Smart Partners Industrial Program.

Chris Moore, operations manager for Brenco Industries, says becoming a Power Smart Industrial Partner in 2010 was “In line with our strategic plan.”  This is partly because Brenco already operated a program (Waste-O-Saurus) that recognizes customers who achieve waste reduction.

Moore was inspired to visit the BC Hydro website after reading a story about how a U.S. manufacturer undertook an energy audit and reduced its energy costs. “I learned about the industrial Power Smart program, conveyed my interest, and late last year an audit was performed at no cost to Brenco,” he says. “The audit estimated a savings of $13,000.00 per year with an ROI of 13 months by simply changing light bulbs.”

Established in 1983, Brenco’s Delta-based 60,000 square foot manufacturing facility consists of the latest metal fabricating technology such as lasers, water-jets, shape rolls, plate rolls, C.N.C punches and press brakes.

Brenco conducted a lighting retrofit whereby lamps with a lower wattage but higher luminescence were installed. “In the five months since the switch to the more efficient bulbs and changes to how we manage our lighting needs, we’ve realized a drop in power consumption of 16 per cent, even though we’re a lot busier this year than last,” says Moore. In one area of the plant alone, Brenco will save approximately $3,200 per year just by switching off a portion of the shop lights.

Moore concludes, “I recommend all businesses go through the process of examining costs with efficiencies in mind. This creates a mindset that questions the things we do and the way we do them with respect to our energy consumption.”