A family-sized dairy operation with eight employees in Pennsylvania, agribusiness giant Cargill, and the world’s largest food companies such as Nestle and Unilever have a great deal in common: they are all implementing strategies to reduce their “carbon footprints,” or greenhouse gas emissions.
“Larger dairies are going to have to be looking at reducing odor emissions,” says Alfred Wanner, Narvon, Pa., who installed a $1 million methane digester the summer of 2007.
This was just one of many motivations for him to install the digester for his 600-cow operation. Among others:
* “Reducing our costs” by offsetting electricity needs, through selling excess power beyond what his dairy needed back to his power company grid;
* “We have less manure that has to be hauled,” thus reducing fuel costs for its transport;
* Reducing the chance for manure run-off by processing it into energy through the digester, and,
* Using the processed manure solids as bedding for his dairy cows, since the bacteria it once contained is killed.
In addition, Wanner is using the heat generated by the digester to heat hot water used for cleaning, thus reducing propane use.
Wanner estimates about a 10-year payback from his digester, which he partially funded by selling the carbon credits to an energy broker, who, in turn, re-sells them to other companies that want or need to buy energy offsets. He also received grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and USDA.
One of the biggest challenges, Wanner says, was working with his power company, on selling power back to the grid, which occurred right after a new Pennsylvania law passed on the issue, thus “some things had to be ironed out.”
Cargill is working on several fronts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It has created a division called Cargill Environmental Finance, in which the company finances the construction of digesters for livestock and other agricultural operations internationally, and in exchange receives carbon credits that can be traded on global climate exchanges, such as the Chicago Climate Exchange (other members of the exchange include Smithfield Foods, Premium Standard Farms, Dupont, Gallo Cattle Co., Renewable Fuels Association, Safeway, and Monsanto).
In 2007, for example, Cargill announced plans to finance an anaerobic digester on a 10,000-cow dairy in Idaho, and an Indonesian cattle feedlot. Cargill also announced plans to finance digesters at a cassava starch plant in Singapore.
Cargill joined the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) in March 2007. The CCX is the world’s first and North America’s only voluntary, legally binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction, registry, and trading program. In joining, Cargill commits to achieve a 6 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2010, from a baseline of the company’s average greenhouse gas emissions during 1998-2001.
A Cargill spokesman says that “it’s safe to say that trading in carbon credits is never likely to be a major profit center, but given our deep expertise and long history in commodity trading, we believe we have something to offer.”
Other motivations of the company for participating, he says, are “to demonstrate a more public commitment to reducing our environmental footprint, supporting the concept of market-based climate change mitigation, and increasing awareness within our organization about our efforts related to improving energy efficiency and increasing the use of renewable fuels.”
Cargill also has placed covers on wastewater treatment lagoons in each of its U.S. beef processing plants to capture natural occurring methane, which is conditioned and used in processing plant boilers, displacing 21 percent of the natural gas demand at these locations.
In addition, Cargill’s soybean processing facility in Des Moines, Iowa, recently started using biogas from the city’s municipal wastewater treatment plant to generate power. In the past, excess methane created in the water treatment process was “flared” into the sky—a waste of energy and a release of greenhouse gas. Now, the excess methane is shipped by pipeline across the road to Cargill. It has already saved Cargill hundreds of thousands of dollars in energy costs. The company expects the investment (in piping, boiler upgrades, etc.) to pay for itself in less than a year.
Cargill also has formed a joint venture with Tokyo-based Teijin to form NatureWorks, to make “low carbon footprint polymers” for food industry packaging and other uses derived from 100 percent annually renewable resources that the company says can compete with petroleum-based packaging materials and fibers. Cargill is the largest manufacturer of plastic for the food business made from plants. Part of Cargill’s long-term strategy is to grow its bio-based business, a spokesperson says. Bio-based plastics are used for bottled dairy products, still water, and fruit juices, but not soda pop. At present, the bio-based plastic business is a very small segment of the entire plastic business, however.
One of the biggest, most visible ways Nestle Waters North America has reduced its carbon footprint “is by reducing the weight of the bottle,” says Kevin Matthews, director of health and environmental affairs for the company. Its new “eco-shaped” bottle is 15 percent lighter than the company’s previous bottle, he says. “This will reduce our use of PET (a lightweight plastic that does not affect the quality of the water) resin by 65 million pounds in 2008,” he says.
Nestlé’s water brands include Perrier, San Pellegrino, Calistoga, and Arrowhead.
Taking raw materials out both “saves money” and is good for the environment, he says.
Other ways his company saves money and reduces its carbon footprint, he says, is by making its own plastic bottles, so they don’t have to be trucked in from a distant plant. Another way the company is experimenting with reducing its carbon footprint is to test the use of bio-fuel for its Poland Spring waters fleet. The company also makes sure its labels are not so big that they require more product than is necessary.
The biggest environmental impact comes from reducing the amount of energy and product used, followed by reusing and recycling, he says.
Company-wide, Matthews says Nestle is in the process of first determining its carbon footprint before then targeting levels for reduction.
On the reuse side, some of Nestle water customers give the company three and five-gallon water bottles back, which Nestle then cleans and refills.
Recycling offers great possibility, he says, but the country needs a national recycling policy that it now does not have. For instance, he says that decks can be made from recycled plastics, which last longer than wood decks. He adds that Mohawk is a big user of recycled plastic for its carpets, and fleece and other clothing is made from milk jugs and other plastics.
Nestle is looking at installing solar cells at its Southwest plants. Nestle Waters N.A. also achieved a 9 percent reduction in fuel costs in its fleet from 2004 to 2007 by consolidating routes and taking more trucks off the road, and the company is looking at using hydrogen fuel for its fork lifts.
In the view of Paul Covey, vice president, environmental affairs of Vermont-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, “we feel it is the right thing for business to lead (on reducing carbon footprints) and companies that don’t do it will be playing catch up to those that do.”
Green Mountain, he says, is working on reducing its carbon footprint both through direct and indirect ways. Green Mountain has reduced energy and material use on-site, with indirect methods including using waste heat to heat water. Other ways the company has reduced its imprint is through the replacement of old light fixtures with more energy efficient lighting. The company also has converted its trucking fleet to bio-diesel, and is looking at putting heat exchangers on its roof stacks, which is not easy, Covey says, thus it may take a year before that gets done. Green Mountain also purchases renewable energy credits to offset its carbon footprint. The purchase of RECs means that alternative or green energy is purchased that offset a company’s carbon footprint.
See the rest of this article: Agribusiness Leading the Charge to Reduce Carbon Footprints
