ABP completes green energy conversion at UK sites

30-May-2018 - Last updated on 30-May-2018 at 09:33 GMT

ABP recently achieved quadruple accreditation from the Carbon Trust in recognition of the progress it is making in reducing its environmental impact.

Red meat processor ABP Food Group has converted to green electricity at all of its UK beef and lamb processing sites.

Introduced as part of ABP’s strategy to reduce its carbon footprint under its 2020 sustainability commitments and its existing programme of generating its own renewable energy at its renewables division, Olleco, and at its Ellesmere site, the business now produces more renewable power than it consumes.

“Today’s announcement significantly accelerates us reaching our 2020 carbon reduction targets by the end of the year – two years ahead of schedule,” said Dean Holroyd, group technical and sustainability director. “Renewable energy generated from both external and internal sources has formed an important part of our carbon reduction model. 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 that we will have reduced our carbon consumption by almost a third since 2008.”

ABP’s Olleco division was awarded ‘Sustainable Supplier of the Year@ at McDonald’s annual conference in 2017, while ABP Ellesmere was the first externally verified carbon-neutral processing facility in the world in 2015. The site generates all of its own heating and hot water needs from biofuel produced as a by-product of the beef processing operations that take place on-site.

Carbon Trust

The company recently achieved quadruple accreditation from the Carbon Trust in recognition of the progress it has made in reducing its environmental impact.

ABP Food Group was also awarded triple accreditation by the Carbon Trust for three consecutive years between 2015 and 2017, becoming the first food processor in the world to do so. This achievement was driven by ABP Food Group’s ‘Doing More with Less’ sustainability strategy, which has a number of ambitious targets to be achieved by 2020 with a view to reducing the company’s environmental footprint.

The company won the award for Environmental Initiative of The Year at the 2017 Food Manufacture Excellence Awards. To register your interest for this year’s awards, which will open for entry shortly, contact Rebecca George at rebecca.george@wrbm.com.