Cadbury - Purple Goes Green 2008

We recognise that if we are serious about tackling climate change, we need to be 'absolutely' committed.

Todd StitzerChief Executive Officer

'Purple Goes Green' builds upon Cadbury’s environmental programme that has been in place for fifteen years. It has reduced carbon emissions and packaging and saved 4 million litres of water annually.

Cadbury is an international confectionary and beverage company. The company has had an environmental management programme in place for the past 15 years, has been reporting its emissions to the Carbon Disclosure project since 2003 and since 2006 has taken major steps to set sustainable goals.   In 2007, Cadbury launched the Purple Goes Green initiative, which sets a 2020 vision for the company to tackle climate change. Its focus is on carbon reduction, packaging improvements and saving water.

Process

One of Cadbury’s targets is to reduce its absolute carbon emissions by 50% by 2020. This means that the company aims to reduce its overall carbon emissions even as it expands in size. By ‘saving and switching’ Cadbury will not only reduce the amount of energy it uses but also switch to renewable forms of energy.
 
To save energy, Cadbury’s Sheffield site, home of Liquorice Allsorts, is closely monitoring energy use including the use of electricity to compress air - which is the greatest use of electricity at the site.  New designs of compression units are also being used by site engineers so that this equipment operates at a lower pressure ensuring less energy is used.  In addition, electric motors which account for 30% of the electricity usage are being replaced with high-efficiency models.

An example of switching to more efficient energy forms can be found at the Bournville site which is replacing its four coal-fired boilers with natural gas. This is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 30% as well as eliminating the emissions from transporting coal and ash to and from the site.

By 2010 Cadbury aims to reduce its packaging split into a 10% reduction on standard products and 25% on seasonal items such as Easter eggs and Christmas selection boxes.  A further aim is to ensure that all packaging is 60% biodegradable in that time.

Several of Cadbury’s international factories are in areas where water is scarce and the company aims for each of these sites to have a water reduction programme in place.

Impact

  • Replacing coal-fired boilers with natural gas ones in the Bournville factory has reduced the company’s global emissions of greenhouse gasses by 1%.
  • In 2006, improvements in ‘Cadbury Snaps’ packaging reduced material use by 20% and meant 41% more units could be packed in a single shipping container.
  • Collecting and reusing rainwater in the Australian plant has saved 4 million litres of water a year.

See also

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