August 22, 2008

GSH delivers 15% reduction in energy consumption to HCL BPO Services NI Ltd

GSH Ireland, a subsidiary of GSH Group plc, has delivered a reduction in energy consumption equivalent to the annual consumption of 230 average homes, and cost savings exceeding £100k to HCL BPO Services NI Ltd. This has been achieved despite an increase in head count.

HCL employs over 2,000 people in its Belfast and Armagh centres and provides a range of high value business process outsourcing and contact centre services to major global companies in sectors as diverse as Telecoms, Media & Publishing; Multi-lingual Technical Support, Retail, Government, Utilities and Financial Services. Worldwide HCL employs 55,000 professionals, who operate from 18 countries. The annual revenue for the three-decade-old enterprise founded in 1976 is $4.9 Billion.

HCL has benefited from a saving of in excess of 1,000,000 kWhs and has reduced its CO2 emissions by 600 tonnes.

Following HCL's successful certification to the ISO14001 environmental standard, GSH secured a contract to provide its energyplus energy management solution in addition to FM services at HCL's Belfast site in 2003. It has since reduced energy consumption through engineering best practice, even though the number of employees has increased by over 150%. Following success at its Belfast site, HCL recently made the decision to incorporate its facility in Armagh into the energyplus contract.

Through its energyplus solution, GSH ensures fixed utility costs with a guaranteed financial saving, delivered through the management of utility consumption. The solution guarantees to save energy at no cost to the client, enhances environmental conditions and delivers significant financial savings.

Ronnie McIlwaine, Senior Commercial and Facilities Manager for HCL, said: "Thanks to GSH's innovative solution we have benefited from an impressive 15% saving in energy consumption, which has enabled us to reduce our carbon footprint significantly and make substantial cost savings."

Clive Clarke, GSH Ireland Managing Director, said: "Delivering a reduction in energy consumption is integral to any business, especially at a time when climate change is such a growing concern. By applying our expertise, we can help our clients to minimise the impact that they have on the environment and the communities in which they operate, help them to make significant cost savings and improve their employees' working environment. Our success on the HCL contract demonstrates our extensive capabilities within the energy management sector."

To date, the GSH Group has saved its clients in excess of 90,000 tonnes of CO2 and in excess of £3 million through its core energyplus offering.