Sustainability Commitment

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Ingham’s takes its environmental obligations seriously and has had an environmental policy in place for more than 30 years. The policy provides the framework for a comprehensive management strategy that is integrated with our overall business strategy. It ensures that individual sites are managed in a consistent way and to a high standard. In the last decade, sustainability has become a focus for the organisation is a key business objective, helping identify business improvements and further efficiencies.

We are committed to conduct our business in an environmentally sustainable manner.

And it is important to make our sustainability commitment meaningful on a day-to-day basis. To do this, measurable sustainability goals are set by each site and reviewed throughout the year. This way, we are able to effectively demonstrate our commitment to sustainability. In fact, our results on environmental sustainability speak for themselves, as shown below.

In the last 5 years:

• Our hatchery operation used 47% less water and we kept the landfill waste diversion rate above 99% year-on-year;
• Our feedmill cut its gas usage by 59%, halved total waste volume and increased the landfill waste diversion rate by almost 40%;
• Our processing plants have achieved double-digit percentage reductions in every and fuel usages, and all have above 92% landfill waste diversion rates;
• In key areas where there is waste heat, we are capturing that heat energy to pre-heat water and have retrofitted water recycling systems on a crate washing equipment, resulting in 83% reduction in water usage in the area;
• Parts of the wastewater treatment plant switched the use of fresh water for its processes with the treated wastewater it generates, reducing freshwater usage by almost 60%; and
• At the primary processing plant, we replaced the 1-million-per-year disposable cups with ceramic cups and installed commercial grade dishwashers. This reduced the disposable cup usage by 92%.

 

We have been recognised for our commitment to sustainability.

Our commitment to sustainability through initiatives has been recognised at both a government level as well as by industry leaders.

NZIFST Food Industry Excellence Awards

Ingham’s was the Ecolab Eco-Efficiency category winner of the NZ Institute of Food Science and Technology (NZIFST) in 2014. This award was received for “the company culture, management structure and meaningful goals set across all facets of the operation, ensuring resource utilisation improvements are an integral part of the business. Excellence in each of the individuals’ own performance has resulted in clearly measurable improvements in overall natural resource utilisation”.

Environmental Packaging Award

Ingham’s returnable crates played a key role in the supplier (Viscount Plastics Ltd) to win the 2005 Environmental Packaging Award.

Waikato Business and the Environmental Award

Ingham’s received an award for “achieving waste reduction and efficient resource use” from the Waikato Regional Council in 1998.