Branston Hailed Best Supplier For Carbon Reduction Technology by Tesco
UK potato supplier Branston has been named as the 2011 Tesco supplier with the best technology innovation to reduce carbon. Tesco has congratulated Branston for effectively innovating throughout its production processes and investing in technology to reduce carbon emissions. The Carbon Reduction Technology award is part of Tesco’s ‘Greening the Supply Chain’ initiative.
“This award is particularly important to us, because its recognition from a retailer which sets extremely high environmental standards for both itself and its suppliers,” says Vidyanath Gururajan, Branston’s projects director. “Over the past few years we’ve been looking at a wide range of green initiatives and it’s only after careful analysis that we’ve invested in the best of this technology – innovations that really work for us. All our projects have sustainability built into the brief – from a long-term environmental and a financial perspective.”
Branston invested £2 million in the AD plant,
Over the past few years, Branston has completed a number of projects which have helped it to reduce resource use. A key achievement is the purpose-built prepared foods factory, which is aligned with Branston’s philosophy of low carbon = low cost. Energy efficiency was an integral part of the design brief.
The prepared foods factory was designed to maximise efficiency and reduce waste. The factory recycles warm air from chillers and utilises waste pallets and broken potato boxes in a biomass boiler.
Food waste from the factory and outgrade potatoes from the fresh potato factory are used in a new Anaerobic Digestion (AD) plant which produces a steady 400kW of electricity. Branston invested £2 million in the AD plant and it has enabled the company to reduce electricity use by 40% at theLincolnsite.
The company also invested in innovative water recycling technology, which is fully integrated with the AD plant at theLincolnsite. This enables Branston to recycle water used for washing potatoes and the water extracted in the anaerobic digestion process. It has reduced mains water consumption by 60% at the site.
CAPTION:
Peter Cattell, category director at Tesco, and Vidyanath Gururajan, Branston’s projects director.
