McCain open their doors to demonstrate their low carbon innovations

A group of delegates from organisations across Yorkshire and Humber joined Business in the Community for a visit to McCain Foods manufacturing plant in Whittlesey. The visit was part of the Yorkshire & Humber  "Opening Doors" series of events funded by CO2Sense. The aim of the day was to see the numerous examples of best practice and McCain's investment in renewables which led to them winning this year’s Innovation in the Low Carbon Economy Award.

an inspirational insight into what can be done

McCain Foods is a truly global company with 1 in 3 chips consumed being produced by them and with sales in 110 countries. Production in the UK began in 1969 and the Whittlesey plant opened it’s 2 production lines in 1976. There are now 6 manufacturing sites in the UK with over 2000 employees.

Bill Bartlett, McCain’s Corporate Affairs Director welcomed the delegates to the factory with an overview of their operations and the work that has been undertaken to reduce their environmental impacts. This work is in two areas: agriculture and their operations. Their sustainable agricultural initiative includes the development of grower groups, reducing transport of potatoes by establishing shared storage facilities, rain water harvesting for irrigation and pesticide management. Their operational initiatives include: emissions control, reducing water usage, energy reduction and installation of renewables.

The delegates then embarked on a tour of the factory seeing firsthand the process from the potatoes arriving from the farms to bags of frozen chips being packed in boxes ready to be sent out to their customers.

What became evident at every stage of the manufacturing process were the measures that have been in place to reduce carbon emissions and waste. An example of this is their £2.7 million refrigeration plant which has reduced electrical costs by 12% per year reducing the CO2 emissions by 2500T annually.

The afternoon then gave the delegates the opportunity to discuss with senior engineer, Harry Bond and see for themselves the significant investments that have been made in renewables including a £5 million investment in a 77,000m³ anaerobic lagoon to digest waste water to produce biogas. This biogas currently offsets the amount of natural gas needed to heat plant boilers. McCain have also made a £10 million investment in 3 wind turbines which provides up to 60% of the annual electrical power required to operate the plant which reduced CO2 emissions by 10,000T last year.

             The 77,000m³ anaerobic lagoon and one of the three wind turbines

Overall, the visit was a huge success as expressed by Graham Cooper, Site Manager for AGFA Graphics who described it as “an inspirational insight into what can be done”. It was clear to see the significant carbon reductions, resource efficiencies and financial savings that have been made by McCain and why they won the Innovation in the Low Carbon Economy Award.

To read more about the work McCain Food's have undertaken and how they have reduced their environmental impacts see their McCain Foods (GB) - Innovation in the low carbon economy case study.