Q - What is Cranswick doing to minimise its impact on the environment?
A – The environmental impact of all Cranswick processing sites is monitored and projects initiated to reduce the impact that they have on the environment. This work is co-ordinated so that best practice can be highlighted and the resulting benefits shared across the Group. The Environmental Project Team, established in 2007, has been working with the Carbon Trust and other environmental specialists in establishing a carbon action plan, and with WRAP and Envirowise in evaluating group wide waste solutions, packaging reduction and recycling initiatives.
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Q - What are the Cranswick environmental targets and how do we measure our performance against these?
A – To provide a reliable measure of performance we set our environmental targets based on a reduction in CO2e emissions per tonne of product despatched. Targets were set in 2007 for a 20% reduction of the Group Carbon Footprint by 2011 – this was achieved. Targets have been reviewed in 2011 and these are published within the Greenthinking web site and performance reviews are published in the Annual Report.
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Q - Do we have an Environmental Policy?
A – Our first published Environmental Policy was formulated by the Environmental Project Team in 2007, and has been reviewed annually. Following the achievement of our first objectives, this has now been revised to cover the next few years, with fresh sustainability initiatives. Our Environmental Policy is published on the website and is available to read or download.
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Q - Do we have a strategy to reduce the amount of packaging we use?
A – The group is committed to minimising the use of non-renewable resources in our primary and secondary packaging. As a result we have removed in excess of 700 tonnes per annum of virgin raw material from the business since 2007. The Group has now committed to moving to paper and board based sourced from sustainable sources under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) scheme or equivalent by 2013.
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Q - What are we doing to reduce the amount of water we consume in producing our products?
A – We were the first company in the meat sector to sign up to the FHC (Federation House Commitment) to a 20% reduction in the amount of process water we use per tonne of production by 2020. As part of this work we have calculated the water mass balance for each site to use as a benchmark figure to monitor future performance. To date (2011) a 10% reduction has been achieved.
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Q - Do we know what our carbon foot print is and what are we doing to reduce this?
A – Using Carbon Trust methodology, we have calculated the carbon foot print for each of our processing sites, amalgamating these results to get the Group figure. Our Carbon Action Plan is designed to reduce our comparative Group carbon foot print by 30% (measured as tonnes of CO2e per tonne of production) by 2020 and is one of the environmental KPI`s that will be monitored at board level.
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Q – What are Cranswick doing to reduce landfill?
A - We are constantly looking for ways to reduce our landfill. Recycling is the first choice for waste disposal. Two sites now have waste to energy outlets for material which can’t be recycled and anaerobic digestion is now becoming a more viable option for food waste. The geographical location of environmentally friendly disposal options is monitored to identify viable opportunities to reduce the percentage of waste that goes to landfill.
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Q - What major energy projects are being undertaken?
A – All our sites have high and relatively constant energy base load for refrigeration and processing, and any on-site energy generation could be easily absorbed or exported. Solar and wind renewable options are under review, and Combined Heat and Power solutions for the three cooking plants are being investigated. The installation of specialised voltage reduction equipment and low loss transformers to improve energy efficiencies should all help to reduce our carbon footprint.
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Q - Are any of our processing sites certified to a nationally recognised environmental management standard?
A – Currently four of our largest manufacturing sites Preston (near Hull), Cranswick Norfolk (Watton), Delico (Milton Keynes) and Valley Park (near Barnsley) are accredited to ISO14001, the internationally recognised standard for environmental management. These four sites are also required to be permitted under the Pollution Prevention and Control legislation, monitored by the Environmental Agency. It is the Group's intention that all sites will become ISO14001 accredited by 2013.
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Q - How do we know what energy/waste savings can potentially be achieved within the business?
A – Each of our processing sites has had an energy and waste reduction plan prepared by industry specialists commissioned on our behalf by the Carbon Trust and Envirowise. These plans highlight where further reductions can be achieved and estimates the investment costs involved and calculates the likely payback period.
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Q - Do we benchmark our environmental performance against like for like businesses?
A – Like for like comparisons are not freely available, but we monitor those businesses who report on environmental performance, and those who share information in environmental forums in which we participate. We actively participate in the Carbon Disclosure Project, and the Forest Footprint Disclosure Scheme, as well as reporting our performance in the Annual Report.
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Q - How is Cranswick ensuring it remains current on the environmental debate?
A – The working relationships we have established with the Carbon Trust, WRAP and our membership of advisory bodies such as the BMPA, BPEX & CCFRA, coupled with feedback from industry stake holders and the major UK Retailers will ensure that we remain aware of, and contribute to, the current debate.
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