ABP Linden harness energy from waste to power its retail site
The collaboration provides a circular economy solution that generates renewable electricity from biogas for the company’s retail site. The biogas is generated by Progress Energy, situated in Dromore Co. Down, via anaerobic digestion of organic waste by-products from two other ABP factories at Newry and Lurgan.
The biogas is converted into home-grown green electricity for the Northern Ireland-owned 3T Power who then supplies it to ABP Linden’s retail facility. The arrangement satisfies100% of the ABP Linden retail site’s renewable electricity.
The initiative is part of ABP’s group-wide commitment to lowering its carbon footprint through a sustainability strategy that is aligned to science-based targets, as set out in the 2015 Paris agreement.
Elaine Willis, ABP Linden’s Retail Director said, "We have been sourcing renewable electricity since 2017. This new collaboration with two innovative, local businesses, both with farming roots, takes this a step forward by utilising organic material that is a by-product of meat processing to create a sustainable, circular economy solution right here in our rural community. It also frees up green electricity from the grid for other uses."
ABP Linden’s retail customers include some of the UK’s leading supermarkets. Elaine Willis added, "This initiative addresses our scope 2 emissions from purchased energy. But it is particularly exciting because it creates value from waste within the local agri-food supply chain as well as helping to demonstrate a more sustainable product for our customers and the consumer. It is part of our engagement with farmer-suppliers and our customers to continue to lower the carbon footprint of Northern Irish beef & lamb produce which is already about half the global average."
"Lowering emissions across our business operations will be achieved by addressing upstream emissions from agriculture and downstream emissions from, for example, packaging reduction. Over the past year we have some great success where we have been able to reduce the weight of packaging on some of our products by 50%. Linden Agri-Track is our agriculture sustainability platform through which we are working with farmers to reduce emissions and improve biodiversity. We are also taking part in ABP’s Prism programme which was launched recently with Anderson Centre and Harper Adams University to help measure and then reduce methane emissions on 350 exemplar farms across the UK."
Progress Energy was set up by the farmer Andrew Thompson in 2014 with an investment in a 500kW multi-million-pound anaerobic digestion plant. He commented, “I saw the opportunity to address Northern Ireland’s decarbonisation challenges with Progress Energy. As a farmer myself, I am particularly delighted to work with 3T Power and ABP Linden Foods on a circular economy solution in the beef processing sector.”
3T Power specialises in 100% renewable electricity. "This collaboration creates a circular economy solution that we are all proud to be part of," commented 3T Director, Thomas Kelso who is also a beef farmer.
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