Inspired Pet Nutrition (IPN) – the UK’s largest independent producer of dry pet food – has been awarded Green Level accreditation by Investors in the Environment (iiE). This is the highest level achievable within the iiE’s scheme and IPN is the first UK pet food business to go straight from the Bronze Level, which it was awarded last April, to Green Level.
Becky Taylor of Investors in the Environment, said: “IPN has a strong environmental ethos that is inherent within the business. They have a committed approach to the improvement of their environmental performance and reduction of environmental impacts whilst growing and expanding the business. This performance has been supported by the excellent levels of staff training introduced, maintaining a high environmental profile within the business and engaging their workforce at every level.
“They are to be congratulated on an excellent first iiE Green audit. The company’s level of commitment to reducing its environmental impact and the wide range of projects and actions evidenced is commendable.”
The iiE audit focussed on IPN’s production facilities at Dalton in North Yorkshire. Measured against five key iiE criteria – policy, monitoring, targets, actions and communication – IPN scored 96% out of 100% overall. Comparing 2016 with 2015, reductions in the use of resources have been achieved with a near 4% drop in gas, 20% in electricity and 17% in water. In addition, plastic waste was down more than 5% and paper waste by 17%.
IPN’s Operations Director George Page, said: “Since the last iiE award, a team led by our Environmental Co-ordinator Chris Cole has spent a lot of time evaluating our resource use which is now measured daily. This exercise enabled us to reduce overall energy usage as well as make our processes more energy efficient and cost-effective. Packaging waste, too, has been significantly reduced while all product waste now goes to an anaerobic digester. However, the work doesn’t stop here and our Continuous Improvement Team maintains the search for ways to further reduce waste and ensure that the environment is not harmed by anything we do.”
The iiE also praised additional initiatives underway at IPN including an ongoing energy training and awareness programme, a review of the environmental impacts of the firm’s supply chain and the launch of the company’s intranet with an “excellent section” on the environment.
WAGG FOODS
Dan Reeves – Marketing Manager
Tel: 01845 578111
Email: danreeves@waggfoods.co.uk
Comments are closed.