sharegreen - Food and Beverage

Winnipeg Oven Heat Recovery

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:46:58 +0000

Company Name:

Weston Foods

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Challenge:

In 2008, the company committed to replacing its aging Winnipeg fresh bread and rolls facility. The original facility was almost 100 years old and suffered from high costs to modernize the building and equipment. Hydro pricing had been increasing on average 3% per year, and natural gas pricing was increasing 22% over the first 6 months of 2008. Continuing at these cost increases, the plant would find utility costs becoming a significant factor in overall plant profitability. Cost savings for operating the plant could be realized by recovering waste heat for other uses inside the facility, and the capital and operational costs of the installation of a statute regulated steam system could be avoided.

The main stakeholders in this project were upper management, our production staff, central engineering, Air Management Technologies and Manitoba Hydro.

Strategy:

The main goal of the heat recovery system was to negate the need for equipment and infrastructure costs to operate a conventional 50 BHP steam boiler system with its 70% overall gas to heat efficiency, and replace this with a system that would recover waste heat that is effectively 100% efficient. Avoiding the boiler plant at full loading would displace the need to combust over 1.7M BTU/hr of natural gas, avoid 172 lbs/hr of 10% boiler blow down water, and negate a boiler water treatment program that would have required wastewater monitoring and potential treatment. In the spring of 2008, Central Engineering completed a detailed review of the statute requirements of P95-92, The Power Engineers Act, to determine what design options and constraints would be encountered to build a heat recovery system, and compared this to the needs of a conventional steam boiler system. Manitoba Hydro was consulted for interpretation of some clauses of the Act and it was determined that, from a capital standpoint, heat recovery was a lower cost option. MB Hydro expressed interest at this time to support, via incentives, the installation of a heat recovery system depending upon design performance.

Air Management Technologies was contacted in early summer 2008, to provide a proposal for heat recovery to be incorporated in the overall plant design. In consultation with the oven suppliers, AMF and Bake-Tech, and the dough proofing supplier, Bake-Tech, a design was formed based upon a similar installation done two years previously at another Weston’s facility in the USA. Detailed design calculations indicated that the full boiler loading could be avoided, resulting in a potential net savings of 113,178 m3 of natural gas per year, with electrical consumption being held the same for both the heat recovery and conventional boiler options. Usage of potable city water was not needed for the heat recovery system, so boiler blow down issues would be avoided. Once the heat recovery design was completed, Manitoba Hydro was contacted in late summer 2008 to engage their support for the design and the offering of potential incentives.

In the fall of 2008, the main challenges for the system to proceed were to convince upper management that the design would be as reliable as a conventional steam system, and that the cost of ownership would be favorable. The reliability of the design concept was dealt with by consulting the USA facility where the original heat recovery system had been in operation for over 2 years. Topics related to capacity, reliable operational time, system maintenance and complexity for plant staff were discussed during several conference calls, and compared very favorably to a steam system. The resulting positive comments were forwarded to upper management decision makers. Cost of ownership was a comparison of capital outlay, labor costs, chemical costs and water usage costs between the heat recovery and steam systems. While capital outlay was found to be similar, secondary operational costs were found to be avoidable in the case of water and chemicals, or reduced in natural gas consumption.

Results:

In the spring of 2009, upon completion of the construction of the new facility, the heat recovery system was put on line. Upon start-up, the cold start loading of both production line proofers was carried by the heat recovery from the rolls line only, validating the main design requirement of displacing the need for a steam boiler. In addition, the commissioning showed that a surplus of heat would be available for other secondary uses in the future, as the bread oven recovery unit was not in use at this time. Data collection presented to Manitoba Hydro during the months of July-August 2009 and during November 2009 showed that the heat recovery actually achieved was equivalent to 60,783 m3 of natural gas per year and 67,093 m3 of natural gas per year respectively. Scaled to the use of a 70% steam system, this gives a savings range of avoided natural gas consumption of 86,832 to 95,847 m3 per year, which is 76% of the designed target. The full potential savings of 113,178 m3 from the design could not be achieved due to the changes in production at the facility. The model required 24 hrs per day continual operations to keep the circulating fluid hot, but plant operations of 20 hrs per day allowed for cool down of the heat recovery fluid. Additionally, we learned that review of statute requirements in tandem with the governing utility would allow for a more complete understanding of design constraints and opportunities.

The business case to drive the heat recovery system resulted from net reductions in required capital and operational costs. The installation of a steam system would have required additional money to construct a separate steam plant building, a water treatment plant for boiler water, a wastewater treatment plant for boiler blow down, and more complex distribution piping. These extra costs were estimated at over $400,000. Operational costs would have been escalated with a steam plant due to chemical treatment programs, additional water use, and stationary engineering requirements. Chemical treatment programs cost on average $5000/yr for our facilities and water use savings would be nominal. Reallocation of stationary engineering salaries towards more technical maintenance staff was the preferred staffing option. Proven gas savings of 86,000 to 95,000 m3 gas per year amounted to a minimum of $27,000/yr in natural gas savings for this installation. Manitoba Hydro supplied a net incentive of $29,000 to the project upon supply of the verified gas usage data. The overall cost of project was $242,000, with year one total savings of $461,000 for operations and capital with ongoing savings of $32,000, excluding repairs and maintenance costs of the avoided steam plant building. The project embedded in the company psyche that heat recovery is economically viable, and would be the method of choice for future replacements or green field installation of systems requiring steam.

Read more about the Winnipeg Facility in the Natural Resources Canada OEE publication.

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<a href="http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/industrial/technical-info/library/newsletter/archives-2010/Vol-XIV-no-15-aug15.cfm?attr=24%23a">http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/industrial/technical-info/library/newsletter/archives-2010/Vol-XIV-no-15-aug15.cfm?attr=24#a</a>

Pepe’s Mexican Foods De-Stratification Fan

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:39:55 +0000

Company Name:

Weston Foods

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Challenge:

In 2007, a cost effective solution to the dual problem of winter heating and summer cooling was needed at Weston Bakeries’ Pepe’s Mexican Foods facility. The plant was located in a leased property, limiting the options for modifications to the building to deal with heating and cooling issues. In the summer months, the installed HVAC system that serviced employee comfort at the packing zone was suffering from infiltration air from the loading dock area, making the system ineffective on hot days. In the winter, unitary gas fired heaters were used to deal with infiltration air during loading operations, but the installed capacity was insufficient to heat the area during the coldest winter months. Both of these situations led to severe employee discomfort, increased heating and cooling costs and lost productivity. Installation of additional cooling and heating capacity was not an option due to building lease constraints.

The main stakeholders in this project were our production staff, central engineering, Enbridge Gas and Arbon Equipment.

Strategy:

The main goal of the de-stratification fan was to reduce the impact of infiltration air into the plant from the loading dock area. Air temperatures in the packing area and loading dock areas were to be set at a minimum of 18 Celsius in the winter, where at the loading dock doors, routine temperatures would drop to freezing resulting in icing up of the dock leveling plates. Summer cooling was to be accepted based upon reduced wet bulb readings around the wrapping area, where heat stress breaks were to be avoided. The ACGIH values for heat stress adopted by the company allows for a maximum wet bulb temperature of 29.6 Celsius for light duty work.

In the summer of 2007, central engineering did a design options review of each issue in turn. Winter heating options included re-working the loading dock mechanisms to weather seal them against air infiltration, installing additional unitary gas fired heaters, installing high speed roll up doors and strict enforcement of doors closed when not actively loading the trucks. The summer cooling options included, additional HVAC equipment, ceiling drop separation curtains and rotating labor breaks. Each equipment addition would add to the operational cost of the facility, as well as consume available capital.

The Conservation Projects contact at Enbridge Gas was consulted as to options that had not been considered for supplemental heating needs. In discussion, options such as infrared heating and increased insulation value doors were considered. An out-of-the-box option was also put forward in the guise of large diameter fans. These fans had been installed by commercial clients of Enbridge and it was indicated that they were gaining more popular use. These fans were incented via the Gas Saver Program from Enbridge and this gained our interest as a low cost option to deal with our heating needs.

Arbon Equipment was contacted in mid summer 2007, to provide details on large diameter slow rotation fans that are designed to de-stratify large areas. During review of the Revolution Fans offered by Arbon, it was apparent that both heating and cooling issues could be handled. The attached figure from ASHRAE 55 section 5.2.3 tabulates the relationship between air speed and apparent cooling, in effect the “wind chill effect”, and was referenced by Arbon as the reasoning behind the summer benefits of these fans. Enbridge Gas was contacted with our intent to install an Arbon Revolution 24 foot diameter fan in July 2007, and they offered incentives under the Gas Saver Program.

In the fall of 2007, the main challenge for the fan installation to proceed was to convince leadership that the design would be valid and offset a conventional gas heating solution. Validity of the design was supported by numerous successful installations in other facilities in the upper USA and also in Ontario, and was openly endorsed by the conservation contact at Enbridge Gas with a pre installation commitment for incentives. This would limit the funding required by the company to get this first trial fan installed. Fall back upon a conventional gas fired unit heater system was little risk due to immediate availability of gas fired unitary heaters.

Results:

In the fall of 2007, a 24 foot diameter Revolution Fan was installed half-way between the loading docks and the packaging area. Upon start up, it was found that the wind chill effect provided significant comfort cooling in the immediate areas of the fan. A secondary effect was realized in that the down draft of air and donut shaped air flow of the fan did act as an air dam between the loading docks and the packaging area. This resulted in the AC air in the immediate packaging areas not being displaced away from the employees. A further effect was to wind chill the loading dock employees from early September heat. Mid winter testing of de-stratification was planned and the results below found that over 10 Celsius temperature rises could be had using the de-stratification fan only, with the added benefit of turning off the four unitary gas fired dock heaters that were in place; each dock heater was approximately 100,000 Btu/hr in capacity.

In January of 2008, two temperature trials verified the de-stratification effects and temperature rise at floor level by using this fan. In one trial, the fan only was used for 24hrs to heat the floor level areas, and in the second test only unitary heaters were used with the fan off and locked out. Temperatures were checked at the loading dock doors and between the packing area and the large fan. The results were normalized against actual outdoor temperatures at the local airport to remove the possibility of a warmer day skewing results. The attached graphs show that with the fan on the temperatures at floor level were increased from 10 Celsius to almost 20 Celsius, and further into the plant, towards the packing areas, the floor temperatures were increased from 14 Celsius to over 25 Celsius.

The business case to drive use of de-stratification resulted from net reductions in capital required and operational costs. The installation of supplementary summer cooling AC and winter unitary gas heaters would have required significant structural roof reinforcement, additional operating utility costs, and special permission from the building owner to do modifications to the structure. The summer AC costs were estimated at $5000 for structural reinforcement and over $15,000 for installation of 15 tons of AC, with the cooling season hydro cost of $3700. Winter heating costs were estimated at $7500 per unit heater added, where it was estimated two units were needed and consuming $5300 of natural gas. Total year one costs of the conventional approach would have been $36,500 with the annual utility bill increased by $9000. Installed, the fan cost $8800, with Enbridge’s Gas Saver program incentive valued at $5600. Utility use of a de-stratification fan is approximately $290 in the cooling year and approximately $400 in the heating year, without the need for natural gas. Total year one costs were $3890, with the annual utility bill increasing by $690. The fan would save the plant over 37,000 kWhrs and 18,000 m3 of natural gas per year.

This trial project proved the validity of using large diameter fans to both provide seasonal heating and cooling effects to our factory floors. Subsequent to this initial installation, fans have been added to three other Ontario Weston factories to off set conventional remediation using the AC and unitary heater solution.

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Tetra Pak's Tetra Recart Provides Eco-Minded Packaging Alternative to Cans and Jars

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:48:10 +0000

Company Name:

Tetra Pak

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Challenge:

Tetra Pak changed the face of packaging over 60 years ago when it introduced aseptic (shelf-stable) carton packaging for milk. This innovation was driven by the need for a packaging product that could be transported and stored without refrigeration. Today, Tetra Pak continues to innovate to meet the ever-changing needs of customers, retailers, and the end consumer. Now more than ever before, consumers are seeking more sustainable solutions, including nutritious products that are packaged responsibly.

True to the company’s legacy to develop and manufacture innovative packaging solutions, Tetra Pak has produced a carton that has successfully met the challenge to stock the stagnant canned food aisle with a viable alternative that is lightweight, recyclable and made mainly from a renewable resource.

Strategy:

For Tetra Pak, innovation is about renewing and refreshing as much as it is about creating something new. Tetra Pak first conceptualized a “retortable carton” – which enables filled projects to be sterilized within the package – years ago. At that time, the industry and consumers simply could not envision it.

Today, Tetra Pak is capitalizing on the stagnant canned food aisle with its ground-breaking retortable carton packaging system: Tetra Recart. The Tetra Recart package fulfills the increasing demands of consumers by offering an alternative to cans for entire food categories including vegetables, soups, tomatoes, beans and even pet food.

Results:

Tetra Pak’s Tetra Recart provides an innovative and sustainable option for customers, retailers and consumers alike. Tetra Recart differs from traditional carton packages in order to withstand the rigours of the retorting process. It is optimized to work with batch retorting systems, which sterilize the package and its contents simultaneously using steam and hot water under pressure. The product inside is typically heated to more than 130°C during retorting – a temperature required to render the contents commercially sterile and therefore shelf-stable over a determined span of time.

To understand the innovation of Tetra Recart, it is important to acknowledge Tetra Pak’s commitment to unlocking business and environmental value across the entire packaging lifecycle. Tetra Recart is a sustainable alternative to canned food. It is made mainly from paper (66 per cent), a renewable and renewed resource. The shape and weight of a Tetra Recart package makes it exceptionally efficient to transport. Unlike conventional steel cans, Tetra Recart is transported as flat cartons to the filling factory.

As a result, one standard truck with empty Tetra Recart cartons has the carrying capacity of nine standard trucks with empty cans. It also uses one-third the packaging to deliver the same amount of product. In addition to steel cans, Tetra Recart is also a viable alternative to glass jars:

For every one million cans, Tetra Recart uses 32 tonnes less packaging, and
For every one million jars, Tetra Recart uses 182 tonnes less packaging.

At the end of its life, Tetra Recart enters a new phase that will see it transformed and begin anew. With a 94 per cent national access rate, cartons are recyclable nearly everywhere in Canada. Recycled cartons are often turned into tissue or other useful and valuable paper products, dramatically reducing the carbon footprint of this innovative packaging system. In addition, in 2010, Tetra Pak partnered with a number of corporations and local government organizations to collectively provide $1-million in seed capital to Groupe RCM, a recycling facility in Yamachiche Québec. The facility launched a line that accepts all cartons (including Tetra Recart), as well as plastic shopping bags and cellophane to make a wide variety of plastic products including: flower pots, railway ties, guard rail posts, pallets and plastic lumber.

As a technological pioneer of the packaging industry Tetra Pak has always paid close attention to how society consumes food and beverages, and the behavioural and cultural shifts that reveal opportunities. Tetra Recart embodies the transformation and innovation that Tetra Pak brings to the marketplace to address consumer needs.

Tetra Pak Canada Ltd. was the winner of the 2011 GLOBE Award for Best Green Consumer Product.

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packaging

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Deanne

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Marketing

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[email protected]">[email protected]

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[email protected]">[email protected]

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6046898801

Frito Lay – Zero Emission Trucks

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Company Name:

Frito Lay

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Challenge:

As Canada’s largest snack food manufacturer, Frito Lay Canada (FLC) sells millions of bags of product each year. These bags are transported to thousands of retail customers each day through the company’s extensive direct to store delivery network. To service customers from coast-to-coast, FLC operates one the country’s largest private fleets, which accounts for a significant portion of FLC’s carbon footprint. For many years, the company has been committed to continually upgrading improving its delivery vehicle fleet with new and innovative technologies to support its overall supply chain environmental sustainability goals.

Strategy:

FLC has made great strides in making its delivery fleet more efficient by improving its existing trucks (improvements include anti-idling mechanisms, more efficient cabin heating systems, skylights in the trailers to reduce the need for artificial lighting, etc), introducing new lighter-weight, more efficient Sprinter vehicles, and by optimizing delivery routes to reduce kilometers driven. Due to these efforts, since 2005 FLC has avoided growing its fleet by 250 vehicles and has actually reduced its fleet size by 55 vehicles while sales have grown.

In June 2010, the company announced its latest fleet innovation with the introduction of zero-emission, all-electric trucks into its delivery fleet. These were made possible through a partnership with Transport Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, making FLC the country’s first food manufacturer to introduce fully-electric vehicles into its delivery fleet.

The six electric vehicles are based at FLC’s major distribution centres across the country – three in Brampton (ON), one in Ottawa (ON), one in Surrey (BC) and one in Laval (QC). Each of the six zero-emission electric vehicles has a 60 kilometer per day range, which meets the daily kilometer needs of the majority of the routes from these distribution centres.

The zero-emission electric vehicles were made by Smith Electric Vehicles, the world’s leading manufacturer of electric vehicles. The six electric vehicles are powered by electricity from the grid, offset by renewable energy credits, and at the end of the battery lifespan (3-5 years or longer) they will be returned to Smith Electric for recycling. As the company purchases renewable energy credits to offset the usage of these vehicles, the electric trucks operate with zero on-road carbon emissions. They also produce zero pollutants and particulate emissions, unlike traditional fossil fuel engines.

The fully electric vehicles feature a 120 kW induction motor that produces virtually no engine noise. A 40 kWh battery pack gives the vehicle a 60 km range and regenerative braking charges the battery while the truck decelerates. The top speed of the electric trucks is governed at 80 km/h to help maximize its range, which makes the vehicles suitable for urban delivery routes.

Results:

The new zero-emission electric trucks are now servicing customers in the Brampton, Ottawa, Surrey, and Laval areas. The government, media and public response to these vehicles has been overwhelmingly positive.

Frito Lay Canada will continue its journey to improve its delivery fleet. As electric trucks are not suitable for every area of the country and every route type, the company will continue to work towards a fleet that’s comprised of several types of highly-efficient vehicles that meet its various route needs and driving distances across the country.

Link to External sites:

<a href="http://www.pepsico.ca/en/Purpose/ES_ENG_FLC.html">• FLC Environmental Sustainability Website</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jumhSN7NjkI&feature=channel">• Soundbite from Marc Guay, FLC President</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIiQ-_4bDRY">• Soundbite from Helmi Ansari, FLC Sustainability Leader</a> <a href="http://sharegreen.ca/?p=87">• FLC Fleet Case Study</a>

Canadian Springs – Hybrid Electric Truck Case Study

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Company Name:

Canadian Springs

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Challenge:

To lower emissions from delivery trucks.

1. Canadian Springs is Canada’s leading provider of direct delivery 18L bottled water and plumbed in filtration systems for homes and offices nationally. The company wishes to emphasize that it fully supports the highest grade of public tap water infrastructure with free and easy access for all, it simply sees a necessity and desire for an alternative drinking water supply for many reasons. Our drinking water products are valued by our customers for areas where tap water is not easily accessible and also as a cleaner alternative to tap water because tap water contains unwanted chemicals such as chlorine and its bi-products, lead, copper, rust, VOCs and many others.

2. Each Canadian Springs large format returnable refillable bottle is used an average of 55 times and carries 1,000L of water in its lifetime before the bottle and its cap are recycled by the company into other useful products. Complete life cycle analysis of 18L water bottles reveals that they have a surprisingly low carbon footprint approximately equal to that of plumbed in tap water filtration systems for equal volumes of water used (this includes all energy inputs of bottle manufacturing, filling, delivering and returning bottles, washing, refilling and recycling for the life of the bottle). Both 18L bottles and tap water filtration systems have a total carbon footprint approximately five times that of tap water, depending on the region of the country. This is in stark contrast to single use bottled water which has a carbon footprint from 30 to 150 times (or more) than that of tap water. A recent independent Oregon Department of Environment study roughly confirms these numbers.

3. Downtown Vancouver trucks delivering Canadian Springs 18L bottles or tap water filters only travel an average of 15,000 km per year, but do 15,000 deliveries per year of an average of 5 bottles or 3 filters per delivery.

4. Having said this, 83% of all company emissions are due to its trucking activities. Addressing truck emissions would therefore have the greatest impact in achieving the company’s goal of becoming the cleanest beverage company in the world. Using large format returnable refillable bottles and supplying filtration systems are already relatively low impact ways of supplying clean drinking water, but addressing truck emissions would further lower that impact.

5. Canadian Springs employs the three Rs in everything it does: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We want customers to carry a sport bottle with spring or filtered water rather than purchasing single use bottled water. Get in the mindset of using refillables for all your beverages while you’re at it.

Strategy:

Hybrid electric Class 7 trucks.

1. All fuel efficient and exhaust after treatment products were considered as possible candidates for reducing truck emissions. Some options appeared to have better potential than others, but all options were limited to those that can be applied to the duty cycle and type of truck Canadian Springs uses; Class 7 beverage body delivery trucks in urban environments. For all-around benefit and ease of use, it was settled that the newly available hybrid electric trucks for Class 7s was the best option.

2. After joining the Vancouver based Electric Vehicles Buyers Group in 2008, the company learned of other fleets that wanted to get greener trucks but needed help in doing so. As opposed to the USA, there is no standard Canadian program in place for fleets to access grants or subsidies for purchasing lower emission vehicles.

3. With the help of the Fraser Basin Council, a total of eight fleets made a collective one time application for funding to help purchase the hybrids because they are significantly more expensive (the incremental cost is 50% more than a standard vehicle). The applications were successful and the Fraser Basin Council got funding for 50% of the incremental cost of the hybrid platform from the BC Ministry of Environment. Thank you Fraser Basin Council.

Results:

Understanding route duty cycles is key to maximizing savings.

1. After testing the new hybrids on various routes, it soon became apparent that fuel savings (and therefore emissions) are dependent on route terrain and duty cycles.

2. Results show maximum savings with urban stop and start routes. Some routes have generated up to 45% fuel reductions compared to the same route using regular trucks. Other routes with fewer stops and more highway travel generate fuel savings of only 5%. All routes do generate fuel savings using hybrids.

3. Payback: with seven year full maintenance leases the payback for using hybrids is unclear for all routes but is becoming increasingly clear for high density urban routes. Average fuel savings of approximately 30-40% on the high density routes will cover the increased cost of purchasing the hybrids. These trucks will both save the company money and reduce fuel use and emissions significantly.

For high density routes fuel savings are expected to average 37%
Emissions reductions for these routes: hydrocarbons 60%, carbon monoxide 50%, and nitrogen oxide 40%

Other emission reduction programs Canadian Springs has employed:

1. Reduced idling

Average downtown trucks had 30%-40% idle time, now it is less than 5%.

2. Reduced speed

Reducing speed from 120km/hr to 80km/hr saves 20% in fuel use.

3. Tire pressure and engine maintenance

Proper tire pressure and engine maintenance reduce fuel use by another 10%

Driver training is the key to success!

Nestle Water Canada – Waste Management

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Company Name:

Nestle

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Challenge:

To continuously reduce our packaging and energy usage and improve waste reduction in our operations while maintaining quality, safety and customer services standards represents our major challenge. These improvements will help to drive efficiencies, shed costs and reduce the impact on the environment. Additionally, they will ensure continuous improvements in recyclable packaging and the diversion of packaging from landill, post consumer use.

Strategy:

There are five strategies in place to assure the Company’s leadership in the areas of waste and material management:

Use 100% recyclable packaging materials for every product produced, whether the bottle, the wrap or the tray;
Reduce packaging material use by working with suppliers on design changes that maintain functionality (i.e., bottle topload and sideload strength for shipping)
Challenge internal teams to improve on waste reduction and internal recycling levels
Increase recycling of products by working with government and industry on public spaces recycling, ICI recycling, multi-residential recycling and public education
Earn environmental certification from the world’s leading standards associations to confirm energy reduction achievements

Results:

Nestlé Waters Canada only uses 100 percent recyclable PET to produce its bottles, 100 percent recyclable HDPE to produce its caps, 100 percent recyclable PET to produce its wrap and 100 percent recyclable cardboard to produce its trays. All residential recycling programs in Canada have cardboard recycling programs in place and 93 percent of them support plastics recycling. The Company has reduced the amount of plastic in its 500ml. single-use plastic bottles by 30 percent since 2000, which has reduced the amount of energy the Company uses by 30 percent and the amount of greenhouse gases it produces by 22 percent. Use of the lighter 12.2 gram bottle has saved 4.59 million kilograms of PET resin annually in Canada, thus significantly reducing its carbon footprint. Nestle Waters Canada will reduce the size of its packaging by another 27 percent in 2010 with the next evolution of the Eco-Shape bottle. It is important to reduce the amount of plastic in our containers because the bottle represents 55 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions. Nestlé Waters Canada also produces all of its single-serve 500ml. bottles inhouse, eliminating 20,000 trailor loads of empty plastic bottles and reducing greenhouse gas emissions annually by 12,000,000 kilograms.

Nestlé Waters Canada and its industry partners pioneered public spaces recycling in Canada, entering into a $7.2 million, three-year agreement with the Government of Quebec and municipalities across that province in June 2008 to collect and recycle plastic beverage containers and other recyclable materials in public spaces. The program is capturing an estimated 85 percent of recyclables in public spaces, including plastic, glass, aluminum and paper, according to program management Gaia Environmental. Beginning in June 2009, Nestlé Waters Canada and its industry partners funded a two-phase pilot public spaces recycling program in Sarnia, Ontario, that, will be presented to the Province of Ontario with the objective of establishing the initiative across the province as a complement to the blue box system. The first phase saw 76 percent of plastic beverage containers, including bottled water, diverted from landfill. The study also confirmed that these containers represent just 5 percent of the public spaces waste stream. Across Canada, according to the provincial stewards responsible, plastic beverage containers account for one-fifth of 1 percent of the waste stream. Plastic water bottles account for 40 percent of that figure or .2 percent. If the Canadian bottled water industry disappeared tomorrow, there would be no appreciable reduction in the amount of recyclable materials going into the waste stream. Recycling rates across the country have improved by approximately 10 percent over the last five years.

Nestlé Waters Canada recently received ISO 14001 certification, which recognizes that the Company has established sustaining and continuously improving environmental management systems, specifically in the areas of energy efficiency, water conservation and waste management programs. The Company must set annual targets and achieve same to maintain its certification. For example, it has set targets that will see a reduction in energy usage by 17.1 percent, a reduction in water consumption by 4.1 percent and the recycling of 96 percent of its refuse this year. The Company reduced water consumption in 2008 by 10 percent and recycled 95 percent of its waste.

Stonyfield Farms

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Company Name:

Stonyfield Farms

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Challenge:

As the world’s leading organic yogurt maker, Stonyfield Farm is recognized as a global leader and model in green business practices. Stonyfield’s efforts over the past two decades have been recognized by virtually every major green business award including Green Cross Millennium Award for Corporate Environmental Leadership (Global Green USA) and the National Award for Sustainability–Atmosphere and Climate (President’s Council on Sustainable Development.)

Stonyfield’s efforts and passion to reduce its environmental footprint are deeply rooted in the company’s founding mission, crafted by CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg back in 1983. A challenge for any organization is how to spread its mission throughout the company so there is alignment of purpose and practice. After all, no matter how well-intentioned a CEO, a mission is only a statement on paper unless everyone in the company lives and practices it. Essential to the success of Stonyfield’s innovative business model combining social and environmental missions with quality and profitability goals, however, is a motivated workforce committed to the company’s mission, put simply as “healthy food, healthy people, healthy planet, healthy business.” The tool that has fostered the employee “buy-in” to sustainable practices is MAP- Mission Action Program.

Strategy:

In 2006, Stonyfield launched the Mission Action Program, or MAP, a comprehensive program to foster alignment with the company’s mission and core values, and a sense of common purpose. MAP is a company-wide program that actively engages employees in achieving the company’s environmental mission. MAP teams were created in identified impact areas. The teams measure and track environmental impacts, set goals, implement strategies to achieve those goals, and are held accountable for their results.

High-level teams were created in the following areas: Sustainable Packaging, Zero Waste, Facility GHG Emissions, Transportation, Milk GHG Emissions, Water, SWOT (Stonyfield Walking our Talk, charged with ensuring all Stonyfield events, activities and purchases are in keeping with company mission), Ingredients, and Green Chemistry.

As part of the MAP process, each team completes an annual action plan, which includes setting long-term stretch and near-term goals, and outlines the steps to achieve these goals. The plans must be approved annually by the CEO, COO and VP of Natural Resources. Team members also have a portion of their compensation linked to achieving an annual MAP objective.

Results:

Never before in Stonyfield’s history has the company been more aligned and productive in reducing its environmental footprint. MAP has resulted in significant cost savings, a reduced environmental footprint, and national awards, including two EPA awards in as many years.

Among the accomplishments to date:

The Transportation team’s work has resulted in savings of $2.5 million over the past two years, savings which will continue to be realized annually, and a more than 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Its work also resulted in Stonyfield being named the recipient of two EPA Awards: the SmartWay Award and the Clean Air Excellence Award.
The Sustainable Packaging team members report two-year savings of $1.3 million, with more than one million pounds of packaging eliminated.
The Facility Greenhouse Gas Emissions team tallied a one-year savings of $500,000, with a 19% reduction in facility energy per product ton of product.

All of these green “best practices” are shared with companies in North America through frequent speaking engagements and networking events of MAP team members, as well as the highly trafficked www.stonyfield.com website.

Deserving of special mention is the Milk GHG Emissions team’s involvement in a project that will certainly impact the entire dairy industry — the Stonyfield Greener Cow Project. The Stonyfield Greener Cow Project this year provided a watershed moment for the US dairy industry. The program was the first in North America to naturally decrease global warming gases caused by cows’ enteric emissions by focusing on feed, while also increasing the milk’s nutritional value.

Enteric emissions, the “burps” released from cows’ natural digestion process, are responsible for 5-10% of human induced GHG emissions. The program involved feeding cows a diet high in natural omega-3 sources, re-balancing the milk fatty acids and resulted in higher omega-3 content and lower saturated fats. The omega-3 rich feed also rebalanced the cow’s rumen to reduce the waste by-product methane.

The reduction in emissions was as much as 18% (average of 12%), while naturally increasing the omega-3s in the milk by 29%. If every US dairy were to adopt this approach, in less than one year, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be the equivalent of taking more than half a million cars off the road. A pilot program is now being implemented by Stonyfield Canada and will be presented at a conference in Ontario in March.

The program generated substantial media interest, with coverage by The New York Times, FOX News, Reuters, WSJ.com, BusinessWeek, and Associated Press, generating more than 200 million media impressions.

Just last week, a GLOBE & MAIL op-ed written by Neil Reynolds calls out the Greener Cow project out in a piece about Copenhagen and climate change. Titled Belching Cows and the Greening of Big Business, Reynolds posits that big business is, in fact, one of the world’s strongest forces for environmental sustainability—and points to Stonyfield and Danone. He ends his piece with this line:
” If all dairy farms in the U.S. and Canada produced comparable results, GHG emissions from belching cows would decline by an amount equal to the GHG emissions from perhaps 600,000 cars. Now that’s statistically significant. The science of this big-business experiment could indeed make history.”

The Stonyfield Greener Cow Project holds enormous potential to reduce enteric GHG emissions from livestock and improve human health. As the first dairy processor in North America to have a program to reduce enteric GHG emissions in its milk supply, Stonyfield believes his fundamental change holds great promise for healthier food, healthier animals, healthier people and a healthier planet.

Campbell Canada

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Company Name:

Campbells

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Challenge:

At Campbell Canada: We believe we are responsible for what we take from the earth and what we put back into it. This important statement is one of eleven Beliefs that help guide our Vision to make Extraordinary Authentic Nourishment for All.

As part of that Vision and Beliefs standard, in 2008, Campbell Canada led a resource efficiency identification program to address the most effective way to conserve energy and reduce water usage in our soup making operations.

Water is an essential part of soup manufacturing, used for everything from an ingredient in soups and broths, to cleaning and sterilizing equipment, to washing vegetables. Campbell’s Toronto Plant is one of the largest water users in the city of Toronto – nearly 1.7 billion litres of water a year.

Following careful review of various manufacturing opportunities and investments, the challenge of bringing greater efficiency to our overall water usage presented itself as the most advantageous and relevant change we could prioritize. This focus provided the greatest benefit towards a responsible environmental manufacturing approach, with an aim to reduce the overall usage of one of the world’s most valuable resources: water.

Strategy:

The first priority of the Campbell Project Team was to identify the major areas of water use and the relative difficulty in reducing each type of usage. One major use identified was the water usage applied for cooling processed cans as part of the manufacturing process.

Campbell Canada has been making soup at the west Toronto manufacturing facility since 1931. At this facility in South Etobicoke, soup is blended, filled into cans and sent to a cooker, where it is heated with steam to sterilize the product and then cooled with cold water.

The theory of reusing single-use water was logical and resonated with the team. The actual design and implementation was far more complex (see diagram) with considerations for maintaining the cleanliness, flexible demand flows and proper temperature of the water for future use. By engaging expertise from Campbell Global Engineering services and consulting with other plants, an effective water recovery design was created that addressed all the considerations.

Historically, Campbell Canada used incoming city water to cool the cans after the soup was cooked. Although some of the water was reused for cleaning operations, a considerable amount of this warm water ran into the drain.

This equated to a waste of energy and waste of water. The new system uses a closed loop cooling system, recaptures the cooling water and then stores it in large tanks for use in our nightly plant cleaning operation. This process reuses the cooling water for the nightly clean up and reduces the energy required to heat the water – achieving two of the three R’s with one investment.

Results:

The Campbell Canada Water Recovery Program has resulted in nearly 100 per cent recovery of the water used for cooling cans in our hydrostatic cookers. The heat captured by the cooling water and the water itself is used in other areas of the plant. This saves 25 – 40 million litres of water a month.

As one of the City of Toronto’s largest industrial water consumers, Campbell has demonstrated the ability to improve its manufacturing process in such a way that benefits both the environment and the cost of operations. The capital investment on this project was $3.2 million with a return in cost savings of approximately $750,000 annually, generated from water and natural gas reductions.

By capturing the heat transferred from the processed cans, we’ve been able to replace the old hot water system in the facility. With the installation of a 100,000 litre insulated tank and sophisticated online controls to deliver hot water throughout the facility, hot water is provided flexibly throughout the day with little additional energy required.

In March, 2009, Campbell Canada was awarded a Green Toronto Award from the City of Toronto for our Water Recovery efforts – the first time a food manufacturer was nominated and named a winner for this notable program. The Green Toronto Award included a $5,000 honorarium. Campbell employees chose to create greater environmental goodwill by partnering with the Daily Bread Food Bank, located near the Toronto manufacturing facility, to install a water irrigation program and gardening shed for the Food Bank’s Community Garden Project. More than 100 Campbell Canada employees and food bank volunteers gathered to assist with the project which will help to ensure clean water is used to irrigate vegetable and herb plants to be used and enjoyed by Food Bank Clients and as part of the food banks Commissary Program (a meal preparation and cooking program).

The Water Recovery Project also helped to inspire the formation of a formal Sustainability Committee at Campbell Canada to actively work on identifying new environmental initiatives, documentation and measurement. In addition to finding innovative ways to reduce water use in the manufacturing process, the company also took steps to inform employees about the importance of water conservation at work and at home through education programs (posters, bulletin boards and internal video monitors). Campbell Canada has also implemented a local community clean-up, improved recycling capabilities and other environmentally-minded initiatives, including the installation of solar panels and boiler economizers to minimize Campbell Canada’s environmental impact. Campbell Canada also actively participates in Earth Hour and Earth Day activities.

As addressed in our Campbell Canada Beliefs (see attached) our commitment to lead sustainable efforts is broad-reaching, and this successful and meaningful Water Recovery Project reflects one of those efforts. Our focus to continue to lead and influence change is steadfast and we honour the accountability we own to be a responsible manufacturer in Canada, and around the world.

Coca-Cola

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Company Name:

Cocacola

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Challenge:

Consumers are skeptical of green marketing – 70% think “green” is a marketing tactic (Mintel “American Living” Jan ’08 and “Green Marketing” May ’08). The messaging must be authentic, clear and measurable.

Strategy:

Position the Coca-Cola System and its brands, led by DASANI® and sparkling brands, as industry leaders in eco-friendly packaging innovation with the introduction of a PET bottle that is both renewable and recyclable.
Enhance the brand experience for consumers to further strengthen the affinity they have for our brands
Lead PET packaging innovation
Environmental credibility – Plantbottle™ is a first step towards achieving a longer term vision of delivering every beverage in 100% renewable and recyclable material
Addresses consumers’ attitudes and behaviors around sustainability, including lifestyle changes,
view of corporate responsibility and a desire for environmentally friendly packaging

Consumer Target: The DASANI® target is 25 – 35 year old women and men who make efforts to maintain their personal interests, health and appearance despite the hectic demands of work and life. They are also concerned about the environment and want to do their part to be good stewards of the planet

Launch: Leverage sponsorship of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games- all sparkling soft drinks and DASANI will be served in PlantBottleTM at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games

Global launch plans also include availability in Denmark and the United States. Throughout Denmark, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light and Coca-Cola Zero in 500mL and 2L sizes are now available in the PlantBottle™. And for select markets in the Western United States, including Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, the PlantBottle™ will be used for DASANI in several sizes and Coca-Cola in two-liter bottles, starting in January. Future package launches are being planned in other markets, including Japan and Mexico and for China’s Shanghai Expo in 2010.

Results:

PlantBottle™ introduction and market launch put The Coca-Cola Company on the forefront of bio-based packaging innovation.

Bio content:

Up to 30% of the PlantBottle™ is made from plant-based material
In Denmark, up to 65% of the PlantBottle™ is made from a combination of recycled and plant-based material, with 50% coming from recycled content.

Carbon Footprint:

We are conducting lifecycle analysis research into the Carbon Footprint of PlantBottle package. Preliminary research indicates that from the life cycle – growing of the plant materials through to the production of the resin – the carbon footprint of the PlantBottle packaging is reduced. We are continuing our research into this important area.

Recycling:

100% recyclable just like traditional PET plastic. By design, it not biodegradable or compostable
Recyclable in today’s existing recycling facilities and does not contaminate the recycling stream.
Fits in with our overall support for recycling throughout the world.

Frito Lay – Fleet

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Company Name:

Frito Lay

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Challenge:

An efficient vehicle fleet can have a profound positive impact on the environmental sustainability of an organization. Frito Lay Canada (FLC) has one of the largest private fleets in Canada. In turn, the vehicle fleet accounts for a large portion of FLC’s carbon footprint. The company is continually improving the efficiency of its fleet to reduce carbon emissions and minimize operating costs.

Strategy:

FLC has taken several approaches to improving the efficiency of its vehicle fleet. Foremost, local delivery vehicles are custom designed to enhance their performance. These vehicles are engineered to weigh approximately 4,600 lbs less than comparable models through the use of lightweight materials. The lighter vehicles achieve greater fuel efficiency, reducing carbon emissions and fuel costs. FLC’s sales fleet has also added over 140 Dodge Sprinter vehicles, complete with a custom lightweight body weighing 3,700 lbs less than the standard Sprinter. These models achieve up to 50% better fuel economy while reducing emissions versus comparable vehicles.

FLC has also been active in improving the efficiency of its tractor fleet. FLC’s tractors are continually being replaced with the latest low-emission models, with nearly two-thirds of the tractors equipped with 2007 or newer engine technology. The FLC tractor fleet has also been equipped with several energy saving technologies, including infrared spot heaters, top-speed limiters, idle shutdowns, auxiliary power units, engine re-flash and programming upgrades.

Furthermore, FLC’s trailers have been outfitted with low-drag mud flaps and belly fairings, while new drop-frame trailers have been added to improve the fuel efficiency of the tractor fleet.

FLC also employs various logistics optimizations tactics to enhance fleet efficiency. Partnerships have been formed to establish systematic backhaul routes and increase the utilization of vehicles. Common carriers are also considered to minimize costs throughout the supply chain. Cube maximization tactics have allowed FLC to improve the utilization of volume on fleet vehicles, and in some cases have allowed the company to adopt smaller fuel-efficient vehicles on advantageous routes. Moreover, route optimization and the sequencing of stops have resulted in a mileage reduction with the re-engineered layouts.

Several teams have been developed to focus on key performance indicators and identify areas for improvement and best-practice sharing. Through our continuous improvement process we are constantly working towards improving our economic and environmental bottom line.

Results:

FLC’s vehicle improvements combined with logistics optimization tactics have yielded tremendous savings; both environmental and financial. The company is committed to providing industry leading service levels, consistency of service and no out of stock situations. FLC’s Supply Chain Optimization (SCO) team is constantly working to reduce vehicle kilometers traveled while maintaining their high level of service. Through route and cube optimization methods, FLC has been able remove trucks from the road while being one of the fastest growing consumer packaged goods companies in Canada in each of the past 4 years. Strategic sequencing of vendors on routes has reduced vehicle kilometres traveled by 3%. Adding these operational successes to FLC’s vehicle fleet upgrades, the company has attained a 7% reduction in diesel consumption versus a year ago. This directly translates into decreased carbon emissions. And with rising energy costs, FLC’s improved fuel consumption has a significant positive effect on the economic bottom line of the organization.

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