MSP Turned Parts, a Birmingham precision engineering company, has slashed tens of thousands off its annual energy bills after deciding to go green.
The Coleshill firm saved up to a third on its usual bills of £60,000 after joining a Warwickshire County Council scheme designed to help companies pinpoint areas where resource efficiency can be improved and money saved.
And directors - who made the decision to go green after a management buy-out - say the savings can now be ploughed back into the business.
"Energy has become one of the expenses we really have to keep an eye on," said quality director Martin Smith.
"We had taken energy-saving measures as far as we felt we could on our own and wanted to capitalise on the specialist knowledge available.
"Building an energy profile, including use of a loaned smart meter, gave us so much information and so many clues as to where we could make savings.
"All our machines utilise compressed air and the thing that hit me in the face was that we had a 60kw compressor, which had been operating since the 1990s and was costing £1,000 a month in electricity."
The firm received a £16,000 interest-free loan in April from the Carbon Trust to buy more efficient equipment.
The savings made should pay for the new compressor in three years, they say.
They are also using an oil reclaimer to process their waste oil, eliminating 12,000 litres of hazardous waste a year, which is expected to produce a further saving of £5,000 in disposal costs.
MSP, which employs 42 people, makes precision turned parts used typically in the automotive, gas and hydraulic industries.
Warwickshire County Council business support officer Stephen Lewington, who leads the resource efficiency club, said MSP was "on the ball" when it came to saving energy and other environmental improvements.
"They employ a 'we can do this' approach and that is probably why they were so successful so quickly," he said.
"However, similar savings are potentially available to most businesses."
