WHAT’S NEW?
LEADING TECHNOLOGY: TURNING WINTER
MAINTENANCE GREEN Their commitment to caring for the environment will see the country’s biggest winter maintenance provider trial a number of green technologies over the coming months in a move towards making their gritting business carbon neutral.
Newly combined workforces of Ground Control and The Gritting Company will replace the secondary diesel engine routinely used to dispense salt or grit on some of their trucks with a fully electric drive, offering six to eight hours of continuous use on a single charge.
Another gritting vehicle will be equipped with brine tanks, allowing the operator to dispense the liquid brine followed by a reduced amount of salt. Not only does the pre-activated solution melt snow and ice quicker, it’s more environmentally friendly – it uses approximately 50% less salt than a typical gritting application, reducing the potential harm done to both the adjacent vegetation and the road surface affected during the spreading process.
“We’re introducing the latest electric gritting and greener de-icing technology to ensure we can fully meet our customers’ needs over the winter months,” said Ian Morehouse, Winter Maintenance Director at Ground Control and The Gritting Company. “We are leasing the technology at the moment to ensure we can continue to deliver a great service with this new equipment. We will do a full analysis through the season, but we are quietly confident we’ll be in a position to expand its use next year.”
With more than 200 gritting delivery teams serving over 9,000 customer locations across the country, Ground Control and The Gritting Company hope the winter season trials will mark a sea of change for the industry.
“The trial is central to our core environmental values – the use of electric vehicles and improving processes are critical to achieving our goal of becoming carbon
www.tomorrowsfm.com
neutral by 2025,” said Morehouse. “As a company, we’re pushing and stretching our imagination with regards to working practices, with a strong focus on how technology can reduce our environmental impact and make us more sustainable.”
This trial is the latest example of the newly joined winter maintenance teams’ commitment to sustainability. Earlier this year Ground Control launched the Evergreen Fund and committed to invest 5% of annual net profits in an environmental impact venture fund. In addition, more than 40% of company cars are electric with plans to reach 100% by the end of 2021.
If you’re an FM or company who is yet to arrange a winter maintenance contract for your properties contact us on
sales@gritting.co.uk or
gritting@ground-control.co.uk for a free quote, and get your sites winter safe. The Gritting Company and Ground Control can offer a winter maintenance contract to fit your
needs. Whether that is a monthly or seasonal fixed cost; we can do what’s best for you.
www.gritting.co.uk WINTER TIPS
• Sign up for winter maintenance cover sooner rather than later. Don’t be the person that puts it off because ‘it’s not cold yet’; bad winter weather has a habit of creeping up on us and the best way of fighting it is to be proactive.
• Keep your winter contractor up to date with access information. Gritting usually takes place overnight when staff aren’t on site. If the locks change and we can’t get in; we can’t grit- and that puts staff and customers at risk.
• Looking for greener options or salt alternatives due to ground materials- speak to your winter provider. There are increasingly more options to look at – we can provide quite a few.
TOMORROW’S FM | 17
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