Greenvale Appoints Environmental Coordinator
Greenvale AP, the UK’s leading supplier of fresh potatoes, has strengthened its ‘green team’ with the appointment of Jessica Cranthorne as Environmental Coordinator, based at the company’s Floods Ferry site in Cambridgeshire.
Despite her relative youth (she is 23) Cranthorne has significant experience, having already been a member of the board for the Broads Authority Sustainable Development Fund. She has also acted as an environmental consultant for a community wind turbine project. After attaining a BSc in Environmental Science at Nottingham, she took her masters in Environmental Assessment and Management at the UEA.
At Greenvale her responsibilities will include researching and evaluating alternative energy sources, such as wind turbines; raising staff awareness of environmental issues; monitoring energy use; and ensuring that environmental best practise is applied across all the company’s sites. She will also take over responsibility for implementing Greenvale’s environmental management system and gaining ISO14001 certification.
Greenvale is regarded as a market leader in sustainability and Cranthorne’s appointment underlines this position.
"Minimising the company’s impact on the environment is central to the way Greenvale operates," says operations Director Trevor Dear. "Jessica’s enthusiasm and considerable knowledge will help drive our policies. We’re delighted to have been able to attract such a talented and committed young scientist to the team."
Jessica Cranthorne comments: "This is such an exciting and challenging opportunity. I’m really looking forward to meeting the teams at Greenvale’s sites across the UK and working with them to reduce the company’s impact on the environment."
Outside of work Jessica Cranthorne’s interests include cooking, travel, badminton and yoga.
For more information visit the Greenvale AP website at www.greenvale.co.uk
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Editor’s notes
Greenvale as a leader in sustainability and the environment
- In a pilot study on sustainability in the food industry, conducted by Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing, researchers ranked Greenvale’s performance as the highest in the programme, way above all sector and industry averages.
- In 2007 Greenvale AP was one of the first companies to sign up to The Prince’s May Day Network, the initiative to encourage British industry and agriculture to become more environmentally friendly and ‘climate-conscious’.
- In 2008 Greenvale’s largest site, at Floods Ferry in Cambridgeshire, reduced its emissions by 110 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, a 3.8% reduction on the previous year. Between June and September 2008 at its Scottish sites CO2 emissions were down about 3.5% compared to the previous year.
- Greenvale AP joined the Food & Drink Federation’s ‘Federation House Commitment’, which aims to reduce the UK food and drink industry’s average water consumption by 20% during the next ten years. Despite an increase in production over 2007, Floods Ferry achieved the full 20% target saving in 2008. Greenvale AP has now signed up to three more Climate Change Agreements, all designed to reduce carbon emissions.
- The company is working closely with Envirowise on a Waste Prevention Review at its flagship site in Cambridgeshire. The review will help Greenvale AP minimise waste, emanating not only from packaging facilities but throughout the supply chain.
- DEFRA has chosen Greenvale as a key consultee to study the drivers and barriers of the monitoring and reporting of Green House Gas emissions.
Background
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.