amount of red diesel used in manufacture by switching to electric forklifts and our company car users are increasingly changing to hybrid cars. We are using the waste heat generated by the compressors in the mill to heat the office building as part of a wider heat recovery system.


“ … We have already increased overall equipment effectiveness by 15% and


increased productivity in the milk plant by 20% … ”


We are all about ‘producing more from less’ and this applies


to animal proteins, but also to our own production facility. As such, following a period of very heavy investment into our operation, we have now embarked on an Operational Excellence programme. This Nutreco-wide programme is a continuous quest to eliminate losses (e.g. time/yield or wastage) in all our processes through active participation of all the employees in our company. It is essentially aimed at getting the best out of our new equipment. We have already increased overall equipment effectiveness by 15% and increased productivity in the milk plant by 20%. This is done through several ‘Kaizen’ (i.e. continuous improvement) projects, such as the introduction of Autonomous Maintenance and an optimisation of our planning patterns. The latter reduces the amount of change-overs and flushing required, while optimising fleet utilisation for outbound transport to customers.


What will we be doing next? The next stage on our quest to reduce energy use will be the installation of solar panels in the first quarter of 2023 to increase our use of renewable energy. We are installing a 1200 panel solar PV system with the capacity to generate 550Kw (peak) of electricity for the site, reducing our CO2 by 82,000kg per year.


We have instigated a major review of packaging which is an


activity which has implications across the downward supply chain. The driving philosophy is reduce: reuse: recycle. We will be working with our customers on all our packaging options and investigating different bagging materials to reduce our reliance on plastic. We will be encouraging our customers to move from small bags to larger bags or bulks. We are developing programmes for recycling and reusing as


much material as possible and are looking to improve the working life of pallets. We will be introducing a scheme where pallets and packaging becomes 100% recyclable from reuse throughout the whole supply chain network. All these steps, however small, have and will continue to help


us reduce the environmental impact of our business. By so doing we can become the most sustainable in terms of manufacture of our products, delivering environmental benefits to our customer partners and to their customers.


Increasing throughput and improving efficiency of operations


has given a two-pronged approach to reducing the carbon footprint per tonne produced. While making practical changes to our own business is an


essential step, we are also committed to educating the industry on ways to reduce carbon footprint through increased efficiency. We have conducted webinars and other training approaches with over 12,000 farmers, feed advisors and other industry professionals in the last year to explain what we are doing, why we are doing it and the benefits that they can see.


“ … The driving philosophy is reduce: reuse: recycle. We will be working with our customers on all our packaging options and investigating different bagging materials to reduce our reliance on plastic … “


Our journey is gaining pace and we are continuing to make


changes within our own operations. In the next article, we will explain how we will be working more closely with our ruminant customers and farmers to be their sustainability partner of choice delivering tangible sustainability benefits.


FEED COMPOUNDER MARCH/APRIL 2023 PAGE 39


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