Young’s Seafood on Thursday announced that its Grimsby, England, production facility has reached some significant milestones in environmental improvement, including a 16 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions per metric ton of production from two years ago.
In 2008, the company launched a comprehensive action plan to tackle every aspect of environmental performance in its production facilities. So far, the program has reduced water and energy use by 30 percent and 7 percent, respectively, and cut gas use by 5 percent since 2007.
Young’s is also on course to beat its target of zero packaging and food waste delivered to landfills by year’s end, with 99 percent of waste already being recycled and reused.
The focus on operational improvement is part of Young’s broader Food for Life program, adopted for all European operations by Young’s parent company, Findus Group. Earlier this year, the program won the grand prize in the management category of the European Business Awards for the Environment.
“Our environmental action plan shows quite clearly what it is possible to achieve just by setting tough targets and being systematic about how you intend to reach them,” said Steve Lidgett, operations director for Young’s in Grimsby. “Most of our big achievements so far are the cumulative result of many hundreds of small systematic improvements — added together they have already given Young’s a much greener operational profile.”
All Environment & Sustainability stories >