Bright green idea makes it a red–letter day for Charlotte

Taking on a graduate on a summer placement paid off for Fife firm James Donaldson Timber when she identified savings in money and carbon.

Charlotte Owen spent two months at the company through the Business Partnership’s “bright green placement scheme”, looking into its energy usage and carbon emissions. She developed a monitoring and targeting system to highlight the peaks and troughs of energy usage, and identified how the company could save 20 per cent on electricity bills, reduce paper waste by 4.5 tonnes and cut carbon emissions by 210 tonnes a year.

The St Andrews University geography graduate was presented with the first prize among those who took part in the scheme across Scotland by the environment and climate change minister Stewart Stevenson.

Donaldson’s integrated systems manager, Mark Murphy, said: “Charlotte far exceeded what was expected of her in her role and has been a real asset to the company over the last two months.”