UK’s major potato supplier sets targets and standards in carbon reduction and environmental responsibility
With a name like ‘Greenvale’ a company could hardly avoid addressing the subject of environmental responsibility head-on. The ‘greening’ of agriculture is an essential target, and the company, the leading supplier of British fresh potatoes, is trying to ensure it plays a leading and responsible role in sustainability in food production.
Recently Paul Tyson, Environmental Manager of Greenvale AP, attended a food industry workshop at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on the Government’s forthcoming Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC). Tyson is tasked with delivering Greenvale’s feedback about the proposed legislation, helping in advance to make it work more effectively, instead of simply accepting it when it arrives.
"Greenvale has eagerly joined initiatives such as the May Day Network and the Federation House Commitment," he says. "We want to share our knowledge and increase the peer pressure on the food and agriculture industry to change habits and work for a better world.
"Even more," adds Tyson, "Greenvale is trying to show it can do this while still being a successful and growing business."
In 2007 Greenvale was one of the first companies to sign up to The Prince’s May Day Network, the new initiative to encourage British industry and agriculture to become more environmentally friendly and ‘climate-conscious’.
When committing to the May Day Network, one of the first things the company did was to calculate its carbon footprint, and plan ways to reduce emissions. The company now has monthly ‘Green Team’ meetings to motivate and encourage staff to develop energy-saving ideas.
Even in the first year, figures for carbon reduction have been impressive. For example, Greenvale estimates that from June to September 2008 at its Scottish sites alone CO2 emissions were down about 3.5% compared to the previous year. This is about 27.7 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, and was achieved without cost.
Meanwhile Greenvale’s largest site, at Floods Ferry in Cambridgeshire, last year reduced its emissions by 110 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, a 3.8% reduction on the previous year, and expects more savings in 2009.
While the company is investing heavily in energy-saving equipment in the next couple of years – and the reductions should then be dramatic – at the heart of the changes is the determination to reduce its environmental impact in every area.
Thus Greenvale has also joined the Food & Drink Federation’s ‘Federation House Commitment’ (FHC), to help it quantify and reduce the amount of water it uses. The FHC aims to get the UK food and drink industry to reduce its average water consumption by 20% during the next ten years, and in such a water-intensive industry as agriculture it’s a vital component of environmental ethics.
One immediate result was the full 20% target saving on water consumption at Floods Ferry in 2008. This was achieved despite an increase in production over the previous year.
But meeting the targets wasn’t simply a matter of ethics. It is actually making good business sense too, since cutting consumption of resources and emissions also means cutting overheads and increasing profits. By having already acted, the company is also pre-empting forthcoming legislation, such as the official Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), due to start next year.
Mostly these initiatives are aimed at senior staff within a business. Greenvale, however, feels that all staff should know the company’s approach to environmental responsibility, as it’s often the smaller individual contributions that collectively contribute the most. The more the company as a whole supports environmental responsibility, the more that individual staff will care. So Greenvale continues to work on staff awareness, for example by recently giving away over 500 energy-saving lightbulbs to employees and special ‘green’ induction training for new recruits.
Further schemes include the increase of more forms of sub-metering on Greenvale sites, to highlight any inefficiencies and improve energy management, and to commission feasibility studies on sustainable energy systems, including large-scale wind turbines, biomass and combined heat and power projects.
In addition Greenvale is currently looking at two large-scale Renewable Energy projects for its processing operations in Berwickshire and Cambridgeshire. The development of the two wind turbines would fulfil all Greenvale’s energy requirements at these sites and provide an opportunity to supply excess ‘green’ energy back to the National Grid.
Yet reduction in resource consumption and emissions are only part of environmental responsibility, under the umbrella of sustainability.
Greenvale was recently praised for overall ‘sustainability in food production’, in a pilot study conducted by Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing (IfM).
The institute selected twelve major UK food businesses for a study, including companies in food production (growers), wholesalers, food processing and supermarkets, benchmarking each company against its sector and industry average.
The results ranked Greenvale as by far the highest scoring company in the programme. The researchers found its performance to be way above all sector and industry averages, and the company’s performance was found to be always better than ‘very good’.
Other ‘excellent’ practices by Greenvale included an increase in recycling and a big reduction in packaging and waste. Greenvale was considered ‘excellent’, compared to both the industry and sector averages, and was the highest scoring organisation out of the 12 companies interviewed.
Greenvale is currently working towards ISO14001 accreditation by developing a bespoke Environmental Management System (EMS) for the Group. ISO14001 is the international standard for Environmental Management Systems and will form part of Greenvale’s continuing commitment to the environment and the development of the company as a whole.
For more information visit the Greenvale AP website at www.greenvale.co.uk
Notes for editors:
Greenvale AP is the UK’s leading supplier of fresh potatoes and was awarded the Queens Award for Innovation in 2006. Greenvale AP now supplies the UK’s premier retailers, caterers and processing outlets with quality potatoes, meeting the high standards demanded by the UK market.
Greenvale AP has developed sites in the major potato growing areas across the UK, resulting in three state of the art potato-packing operations situated in Shropshire, Berwickshire and Cambridgeshire. The company also has sales and marketing offices across the UK, including in Norfolk, Suffolk, Somerset, Hereford and Yorkshire. Greenvale AP’s Seed Potato operation is managed from a specialist office at Burrelton, near Perth in Scotland.
Vales Sovereign, a new potato variety from Greenvale AP, won ‘Variety of the Year’ in the Tesco Fresh Produce Category Awards, held on November 20th 2008 at Royal Lancaster Hotel in London. Announcing the award, Alex Dower, the Category Director for Tesco, commended both the sales performance and Greenvale’s work in escalating the availability of Vales Sovereign.