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According to ADM, this milestone will help manufacturers who source them reduce their carbon footprints at a time when consumers increasingly seek more sustainable options and adopt climate-friendly eating practices.
This achievement also helped ADM meet its 2020 environmental goals ahead of schedule and brought it closer to its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25% and energy intensity by 15% by 2035. compared to 2019.
‘Energy scavenger hunts’ reveal big and small ways to cut emissions
Today’s announcement marks more than a decade of work by ADM to reduce and offset emissions from its U.S. flour mill operations, including “Energy treasure hunt”,Where specialized teams visited the facilities in person or virtually during the pandemic to “Explore how we use energy and ways to use it more efficiently”,Said Chris Cuddy, ADM SVP and President, Carbohydrate Solutions.
He told FoodNavigator-USA that the teams would be looking for fruits on hand or adjustments that don’t require a lot of capital, but which, when combined, have a significant impact.
“So whether it’s recycling heat, recycling water, using LED lights, for example, which is pretty simple, we can all relate to ourselves because we do that in our homes too,” these specialized teams find ways to reduce the energy footprint, “he said.
This strategy is possible because as “Large and large company with expertise in many different sectors”,ADM is capable of “Take these gains from one segment to another, or learn lessons and disseminate them in all our business units”,he added.
Modern, state-of-the-art facilities help reduce emissions
ADM has also significantly reduced emissions from its flour milling operations in the United States by shutting down old mills with outdated technology and replacing them with more efficient, state-of-the-art facilities, Cuddy said.
This included a new facility in Medota, Ill., Which, when it opened in fall 2019, was the largest flour mill built from scratch in North America.
The 30,000 cwt plant includes “three grinding units with centralized monitoring to ensure performance, consistency and security of supply”, a new laboratory with modern quality control equipment and a transport company on site that uses radio frequency identification technology to ensure efficiency and accuracy, according to ADM.
In addition to opening new facilities, ADM also completed a carbon capture and storage project adjacent to its corn processing plant in Decatur, Illinois this spring.
With the help of the US Department of Energy’s Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium, the Illinois Basin-Decatur project is able to accept and store one million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide over a three-year period. , according to ADM, is equivalent to the annual emissions of 1.2 million passenger cars.
“That’s a big, big part of what was involved in getting us to zero carbon neutrality for these factories,”said Cuddy.
He explained that the project includes drilling wells and testing carbon dioxide sequestration using a “fairly pure carbon”Of its fermentation facilities which can be dehydrated and compressed “in a fairly efficient manner and then sequestered in this basin where we believe it can be stored forever.”
“Becoming more sustainable is a big problem for our customers”
ADM was able to close the final gap on its milling emissions in the United States by purchasing renewable energy certificates.
“While [the certificates] may not be on our agenda, they continue to encourage people all over the world to generate renewable energy – – so we think it’s important ”,said Cuddy.
He added that ADM may shift some of that offsets to do more work in-house to further reduce the company’s manufacturing footprint and create a more efficient and sustainable business.
Ultimately, these changes are not only good for ADM and the planet, but also for ADM’s partners, Cuddy said.
“Becoming more sustainable is a big deal for our customers and I’m excited to see what they are doing with it, how they promote it on their packaging and labels to show their consumers what they have been able to do to reduce their carbon. . footprint through their supply chain ”,he explained.
He added that this change comes at a pivotal time when consumer interest in sustainability is growing.
According to Euromonitor’s 2020 International Lifestyle Survey, 68% of consumers are concerned about climate change, 37% want to reduce their personal carbon emissions, 22% offset their carbon footprint and 67% support carbon labeling .
“We are happy to be a supplier of this”,and helping manufacturers and consumers meet their sustainability goals, Cuddy said.
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