At McCain we do all we can to make the entire potato production process as environmentally friendly as possible. From how the farmers we partner with nurture their soil, to the way our factories operate, to our logical approach to product delivery, we’re fully focussed on reducing our carbon footprint. It’s also something customers expect of forward-thinking businesses like ours.
Here’s how we’re helping make potato farming more efficient and sustainable:
Decarbonising transportation
We’re working closely with our inbound potato hauliers to help advance truck technologies, reduce the age of the fleet and explore alternative fuels to reduce transport emissions.
Reduce crop mile
We aim to locate the potato crop as close as possible to our factory sites, which in turn helps to reduce the miles travelled.
Renewable energy
Currently McCain in Great Britain is producing up to 20% of our electricity requirements through smart initiates such as on-site wind turbines. By 2030 our aim is to move to 100% renewable electricity.
Biodiesel
Our used cooking oil never goes to waste, instead it’s converted into biodiesel at a state-of-the-art plant in Liverpool. This is then supplied directly for logistics fleets for food delivery and sold to fuel majors for use on UK forecourts. Since 2019 our oil has been converted into over 4158 tonnes of biodiesel (with an approximate carbon saving of 85%), which is amazing.
A global commitment
We’ve pledged to a 50% absolute reduction in scope 1 & 2 CO2 emissions from our manufacturing plants by 2030 and will work tirelessly to deliver that.
Heat recovery
We’re continuously looking for ways to reduce our Energy and CO2 footprint. At our Scarborough site we’ve reduced our Energy usage by 20%. We achieved this by recovering and reusing the waste heat from our process. Such is the success, we’ve planned similar heat recovery projects over the next five years for our Whittlesey and Wombourne plants.