Going green – one job at a time in MFM Joinery
MEET THE FINALISTS: BEST GREEN BUSINESS
Over the 25 years Mark Smith has been at the helm of MFM Joinery, the business has made substantial investments along their sustainability journey.
And while an environmental ethos has always been at the core of their work stretching back to the 1940s when his grandfather Francis Smith founded the business, their merits have only become apparent in recent decades.
“The raw material we work with is the only renewable material used in the construction business – timber,” says Mark. “Sustainability was always a part of our DNA here.”
Mark’s parents Michael and Bridget took over the business in the late 1980s and moved out the Clones Road to Keelagh, before Mark’s brother Francis took charge. At the turn of the millennium it was Mark’s turn.
Until that point they had regarded wood shavings as a waste product, but the purchase of a biomass boiler in 2007 changed all that. Its success sparked a chain of “major investments”. Two major upgrades in biomass boilers followed, first in 2013.
“That was a much more cleaner, energy efficient system - that biomass boiler has an efficiency of 80-90%.”
In 2020 MFM Joinery bought one that was four times larger because the factory had outgrown the previous one.
Elsewhere the factory roof was insulated and skylights installed (2010), LED lighting installed (2017) before investing in their first electric vehicle (2018). In recent years they invested in two electric forklifts, both from Combilift.
Last year they upgraded the entire building fabric of the old workshops and installed 76kW of solar panels.
“Our ESB was heading for €10,000 every two months,” recalls Mark. “Overall in the year we are probably looking at about 20% in savings,” he predicts conservatively.
A second limb of the business is their conservation work with sash windows and doors for heritage buildings. Locally you can view their handiwork in the Farnham Estate.
“From a company point of view, it’s probably unrecognisable from when I came back here 25 years ago. The emphasis is still on doing the same work, but we are doing it much more efficiently, but still delivering a very high-end product,” Mark assures.
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FULL LIST OF FINALISTS
Read about the other three finalists in this category by visiting the stories below.