McCain Foods Ballarat is kicking goals, as they smash the plant’s 2% target set in the ‘Be Good. Do Good.’ sustainability report.
The Ballarat team has achieved an improvement of 20% in its water use efficiency over the last 12 months.
The company’s focus on Growing Green and Golden, comes from their vision towards a low-carbon economy in Australia and New Zealand – concentrating on emissions, waste, investment in renewable electricity and more sustainable use of packaging and water.
Through 2020, the team have progressed in their waste minimisation and recovery plan, initiating a Global Energy Efficiency Program.
“We saw there were multiple opportunities across the site to minimise water usage, and we wanted to motivate the teams to do all that they could, leading us to set a further 3% water reduction goal for 2021 and beyond,” says McCain Foods Ballarat Potato Plant Manager, Rodney McLaren.
Additionally, the site has implemented a zero-waste methodology, identifying a set of principles on waste prevention throughout the production process.
“There have been numerous energy efficiency studies under the Program now completed on our site and we have found a range of energy saving opportunities here with some already applied which is great to see,” says Mr McLaren.
This innovative program has also seen the start of the installation of 17,000 solar panels at the plant, creating Australia’s largest ‘behind-the-meter’ renewable energy system, while will eventually reduce the facility’s energy consumption by 39%.
A cogeneration anaerobic digestor will be installed to repurpose food scraps into biogas to generate energy, reducing the site’s reliance on natural by 16%.