The cost of commodities, including utilities, continues to rocket, food inflation is soaring, squeezing margins and affecting all areas of finances and operations and the situation looks set to continue well into 2022.
As a result, food and drink manufacturers face severe pressure to deliver savings. The intensive focus on reducing the supply chain’s impact on climate change is further increasing that pressure.
Fortunately, reducing operations costs, boosting efficiency and saving the climate often go hand-in-hand. So how can number crunching and cost reduction save the planet? Have the easy wins all been considered? What sort of benefits can they really deliver and are they worth the effort? And is tackling a major project more trouble than it’s worth?
A team of experts will help you to weigh up the options in a webinar sponsored by ESB Energy aimed at board directors and heads of finance, operations and sustainability and running from 3-4pm UK time on 19 January 2022. Register now to take part on the day for free.
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
Sam Jones, GB head of climate and sustainability at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, will outline some of the savings the company has made through efficient resource use.
Jones has just joined CCEP from packaging giant, DS Smith, where he was responsible for its sustainability strategy, including its Net Zero plans and Science-Based Targets for carbon reduction. He previously held consultancy and advisory positions in the environment teams at Mars and global agri-food business AB Agri.
He will lead CCEP’s GB sustainability agenda, focusing on packaging, carbon reduction, water stewardship and strengthening the business’ links within the communities in which it operates. He will support the business’ This is Forward sustainability action plan – a vital part of CCEP’s path to becoming a Net Zero business by 2040.
Cold Chain Federation
Tom Southall, policy director for the Cold Chain Federation (CCF), will explain initiatives to cut energy costs in the cold chain.
Southall joined the CCF, which represents the UK temperature-controlled logistics industry in November 2019, having spent six months previously on secondment with the organisation.
He is responsible for the development of the Federation’s new Cold Chain Compliance product and other policy work, including food safety, sustainability, energy efficiency, refrigeration management and overseeing the Federation’s Climate Change Agreement. He was previously a consultant at Jacobs and prior to that worked for the Environment Agency for four years.
Work with ABP
Neil Lawson, technical & operations director, ESB will examine how the company worked with meat processor ABP to boost food processing efficiency and renewable heat and heat recovery. He will join with ABP Food Group's sustainability and environmental manager John Durkan to explain their partnership.
Lawson is a specialist thermal engineer with a degree in mechanical engineering and 30 years’ experience in the field. He has worked in Europe, North America, Africa and the Far East on domestic, commercial, process, petrochemical and utility scale applications for thermal energy. He spent the early 1990s developing and delivering efficient energy into Dutch greenhouses.
Those solutions for emissions reduction, maximum efficiency for heat and power using mixed energy sources are still in use some 30 years later across Europe. Since 2000 Lawson has specialised in multi technology energy centres, which include ground source heat pump (GSHP), ASHP, CHP, fossil fuel boiler, chillers, PV, solar thermal and other renewables.
He has been at the forefront of simultaneous heating and cooling coupled to thermal storage, developing efficient solutions for food and drink manufacturing, agriculture, offices, commercial, retail, schools, hospitals, universities, rural estates, exemplar green buildings, low carbon hotels and mixed use developments.