Renewable matters  

• 1.05MW of renewable solar electrical generation onsite at its peak is enough to meet the needs of the site.

• All forklift trucks onsite are electric and we also have an electric engineering transport buggy.

• There are two electric car charging points onsite with two more planned.

• Food waste is kept to a minimum. However, any that can't be saved isn't wasted. Solid or liquid product and anything that goes down the drain is processed and sent to local anaerobic digester (AD) plants to be converted into electricity. 

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Reducing energy, waste and plastic usage ​

• We use a high efficiency gas steam generator which provides low carbon steam. 

• ​We have power factor correction to increase efficiency of electrical usage onsite.

• Most of our milk processing involves removal of water which means less product tankers and trucks leave our site. 

• All staff onsite canteens now use milk from reusable glass bottles instead of plastic. 

• We've gone digital with modern internal fibre optic network, phone mast and bespoke computer programs. This has heavily reduced our paper use across site.

• We have two of our own site boreholes that provide local high quality water and our activities onsite provide more clean water to the area that we extract. 

• Our site uses LED lightbulbs, switches that turn off entire plants, motion/time/light detection activated lights. 

• Plastic bin bags have been replaced with compostable bin bags site wide

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 Recycling what we can't reduce or reuse 

• Mixed dry recycling (plastic, paper, carboard, metal, glass)

• Industrial mixed metal, stainless steel, cables 

• Batteries 

• Crisp packets 

• Mixed recycling to local centres such as paints, fridges​

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Improvements happening now 

• Pallets sold for repair so they can be reused 

• Intermediate bulk containers (IBC) recycling (metal gets recycled and plastic gets pelleted to be reused) 

• We are currently trialling sugar cane pallet wrap to replace conventional plastic film, check it out click here. 

• We've just replaced our non micro plastic sample pots with reusable aluminium ones and glass beakers & test tubes. 

• Microplastics- We are assessing all items that are washed onsite with a view to phase out all plastic fibres such as polyester 

  • Microfibre cloths being replaced with bamboo fully biodegradable cloths ​

  • Clothing using Polyester being replaced with cotton or other biodegradable fabrics

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Future Challenges 

• The food industry still has a heavy requirement to use plastic to store food hygienically. We hope that the recent government tax on plastic packaging will help our industry develop sustainable alternatives. 

• Industry still has a reliance on fossil fuels to provide heat for steam and heavy transport. We hope that in the near future this will be replaced with energy from renewable sources such as hydrogen produced from renewable energy. 

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Note from our site Director 

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Hi all, 

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We all have a part to play in making a more sustainable future. I try to lead by example and make changes to my habits and lifestyle:

• I have a fully electric car and try to bike to work as much as possible 

• My house is on a 100% renewable electricity tariff 

• I recently installed ground source heat to provide clean renewable heating to my house

• I'm aiming to be as plastic free as I can with tinned pet food and non plastic options from supermarkets as well as buying seasonally and locally from our cheese, veg and meat vending machines. 

• Offsetting my personal carbon footprint isn't as good as eliminating it, but it does help to put money into projects worldwide to help reduce net carbon in our atmosphere, check it out at https://carbonneutralbritain.org/ 

• Changing my eating habits to mainly plant-based meals during the week. I may run a dairy company but meat and dairy is a treat and should be eaten as part of a well balanced diet. 

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I hope you can make a change and together we can make a difference. 

 

Thanks, 

Scott Latham 

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