Energy and climate change

Our commitment

As a manufacturing company, we have a special responsibility for developing our activities in a way that will enables us to reduce our energy consumption and environmental impact as much as possible. Recognising that sugar production is an energy-intensive process, we have always been strongly committed to cutting down our energy consumption. An approach that also makes good sense business wise as energy savings register directly on the bottom line.

Our actions

Our vision is to achieve sustainable energy supply and independence of fossil fuels. We will use our biomass knowhow and access, as well as other renewable energy sources to achieve these goals. If, in the long run, we are to base our production on non-fossil fuels, we must invest in and develop advanced, technological solutions. As we are an energy-intensive company but also have the potential to become a major energy supplier, any such investments must be sustainable for many years ahead while also being politically embedded.

 

Energy savings and investments
We have performed a thorough analysis of our carbon footprint. It shows that our sugar leaves a light carbon footprint compared to other processed foods. Its footprint is heavier than wheat flour, but lighter than milk. Even so, we want to reduce our climate impact further.

 

Of the greenhouse gas emissions generated in the production of one kilogramme of sugar, the process at our plants accounts for 50% while sugar beet growing accounts for 40%. Only about 10% arises from transportation. Our approach to reducing our carbon footprint focuses on taking action where the largest financial and climate benefits can be achieved. This is why we give priority to energy savings in production and to investing in the development of sugar beet seed and new growing methods that will allow still more efficient beet growing

 

Ambitious climate strategy
In 2009, we launched an ambitious climate strategy with three overall objectives:

• We aim to reduce our energy consumption by 20% and our carbon footprint by 35% up to 2020 compared to 2005
• We aim to be independent of fossil fuels in 2030
• We aim to further reduce the carbon footprint of sugar-beet growing in our own region

 

Our approach

We will achieve our objectives:

• We will continue reducing our energy consumption by optimising our production. We will also look into new options inherent in new technologies.
• We will use our know-how to evaluate the possibilities of increasing our use of renewable energy, by using, for example, our own or others’ biomass or other renewable energy sources. The beet biomass not used in our sugar production can be to produce energy. We process more than 5 million tonnes of beet every year, and today biogas covers 5% of the energy consumption of our sugar production. In other words, this field offers massive potentials.
• We will continue our efforts to enhance efficiency in beet growing in partnership with our beet suppliers. Our aim is to lower the climate impact while ensuring that sugar beet will continue to remain a sustainable crop in our region. It will also allow us to keep cultivation of our raw materials in the vicinity of our plants, in this way minimising the energy consumed by transportation.

 

Our performance

Even though our climate strategy is new, our track record in the area is long. In the past 20 years, we have reduced our energy consumption per tonne of sugar produced by 40%. In the same period, we have reduced our carbon emissions by close to 60%.