DataIQ Awards 2021 winner – Green data: GSK Consumer Healthcare

DataIQ Awards 2021 winner - Green data: GSK Consumer Healthcare

In November last year, GSK set new environmental sustainability goals aimed at achieving “net zero impact on climate and net positive impact on nature” by 2030. Integral to this aim is a 20% reduction in energy usage across 35 manufacturing sites. One of the mission’s biggest proponents is GSK Maidenhead energy manager Lois Doig, who has set her facility an ambitious target of 3% CO2 reduction annually. 

Despite her determination, Doig knew she needed help before she could set about achieving these aims. Understanding energy consumption at the plant was constrained by delays in accessing information – gas and electricity bills typically arrived six weeks after the end of the month – while extracting raw data into Excel and running analyses would take up to six hours. As a result, spikes in consumption were only identified long after the event, limiting the ability to manage the response to anomalies, such as cold weather or production issues. 

She challenged the GSK Consumer Healthcare data team with building a tool to overcome this problem. Within six weeks, a seven-strong team had developed the energy consumption visualisation product, a gamified dashboard designed to relay information from 119 smart meters at the Maidenhead site. Granular analysis made possible by the tool means that Doig can now investigate spikes in energy consumption and look to remedy any anomalies in just one day, instead of waiting a month. 

To maximise value and enable data-driven activity at scale, the tool was built on cloud infrastructure, using a linear regression model to correlate energy usage with temperature. The information is relayed to site employees on TV screens and coupled with sustainability workshops, with the aim of sparking a pivot towards greener practices as part of GSK’s “Keeping us green” campaign. 

Since launching at the Maidenhead site, the GSK Consumer Healthcare data team has secured additional funding to scale the product globally across 35 sites. The anticipated result is a 9,000-tonne reduction in annual CO2 emissions, equivalent to the amount sequestered by 400,000 mature trees. 

Paul Aither, head of operational sustainability and head of electrical engineering at GSK said: “I want this product in all our sites. The energy consumption visualisation is fantastic! It will really help our energy managers focus their efforts, identify waste and drive energy conservation. I look forward to working with the team as we scale the product globally at pace and make it even more effective at reducing our carbon footprint.”

DataIQ Awards 2021
Year: 2021
Category: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Data

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