Environmental Sustainability

We believe being carbon neutral is just the beginning.

We believe every business has a duty of care to minimise its impact on the environment, which is why the Lanchester group of companies has worked tirelessly over the last decade to ensure sustainability is at our core.

There is, unfortunately, no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to sustainability and so we’ve invested considerably to identify which changes we can make to lessen our effect on our planet.

Our business’ greatest opportunity to make a change is through minimising our reliance on fossil fuels. As such, we’ve invested over £10million in renewable heat and energy generation at our sites across the North East of England and today our business is powered almost completely by renewable wind and solar energy.

Incorporating market-leading technology

We’re currently building Greencroft Two, our new home for Greencroft Bottling which incorporates leading-edge dual insulation and photovoltaic panels. Developed by Kingspan, the PowerPanels have a U-Value of 0.12, as does insulation fitted on the walls, which is the highest standard of insulation making Greencroft Two virtually airtight. The PowerPanels in the roof will have 2 Megawatts of solar which will create around 1.7m kilowatt hours of electricity per year.

We’ve even adjusted the gradient of Greencroft Two’s roof to make the most of the sun. On the north side, if we’d used the normal gradient, we would have had 400 kilowatt hours but by lowering it, we’ll get 700 kilowatt hours

When Greencroft Two is complete, it is estimated that, overall (solar and existing on-site wind turbines combined), the business will generate over 7 million Kilowatt hours per year of clean, renewable energy.

Wind and Solar

  • Our four wind turbines produce around 5.5million kWh (kilowatt hours) of clean, renewable electricity per year. We use around 42% of this electricity to run operations at our Greencroft Estate (including Lanchester Wines and Greencroft Bottling) with the remaining electricity – enough to power 800 three-bedroom homes – feeding into the National Grid for use within our local community.
  • We are installing 2 Megawatts of solar panels on the roof of Greencroft Two which will create around 1.7m kilowatt hours of electricity per year
  • We also have a 41 kilowatt solar array on the roof of Lanchester Wines’ office complex, which is calculated to produce enough clean electricity to cover our day-to-day use. The chemical reactions which occur within solar panels are more efficient at cooler temperatures so County Durham’s bright and sunny, yet rather chilly, weather is perfect for our solar panels.

Heat Pumps

As a business, we continue to make choices about our long-term sustainability which go above and beyond both legislation and common practice. We are pioneering world-changing heat pump technology using water from disused mines at our warehouses in Gateshead

  • Our x2 Open Loop Water Source Heat Pumps have a combined capacity of 4mW (4million Watts) of heat
  • We are currently heating 33,445m2 (360,000 ft2) of warehouse, maintaining an ambient temperature perfect for storage of wine
    • We hope to extend the size of this area further as we refine the technology

This technology not only enables our customers to further reduce their carbon footprint, but also revolutionises how clean technology may be used in former mining areas across the world.

 

Saving Energy

We understand saving energy is just as important as generating it and have implemented a number of practices across our estate:

Lights

  • LED and low energy lighting projects now cover our lighting requirements
  • Movement sensitive lighting areas have been installed throughout company-owned buildings to establish the most effective solution for our operations
  • Combined, this has resulted in around £40,00 savings a year

Warehouses

  • Over 18 580 m2 (200,000 ft2) of additional 240mm roof insulation (along with the existing 120mm) totalling 360mm
  • Warehouse roofs double or tripled skinned (depending on the property)
  • These provide year-round protection from extremes of temperatures, negating the need for additional heating and cooling

Office

  • Our windows are high tech glass which helps us to control the temperature, keeping us cool in summer and warm in winter
  • We heat and cool the building using air source heat pumps which extract the heat from the air outside
  • Our lighting is power-saving and automatic, turning itself off when a room is not in use, thus conserving energy