ABP Food Group has made the switch to green electricity at all 15 of its UK beef and lamb processing sites, bringing it within sight of reaching its carbon reduction targets two years ahead of schedule.
The move comes as part of the processor’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint by 30% by 2020. It has also pledged to reduce its energy consumption by 40% and electricity usage by 30% in the same timescale.
Its Northern Irish sites at Lurgan and Newry were the last to convert to renewable sources, finalising the transition earlier in the month.
“This announcement significantly accelerates us reaching our 2020 carbon reduction targets by the end of the year - two years ahead of schedule,” said group technical and sustainability director Dean Holroyd.
The renewable energy now used by ABP is supplied by EDF from certified green sources, complementing ABP’s own energy-generating programme at its renewables division, Olleco.
The meat giant’s UK business now produces more renewable power than it consumes, exporting a portion back to the National Grid. ABP has three anaerobic digestion facilities converting waste into heat, power and bio-methane in addition to supplying bio-fertiliser.
“Renewable energy generated from both external and internal sources has formed an important part of our carbon reduction model,” said Holroyd.
“The result has been a net positive solution to electricity where we now generate more renewable power than is required for our electricity consumption. It also means we will have reduced our carbon consumption by almost a third since 2008.”
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