THE Pakenham Nestle factory has made significant changes over the past three years to reduce the company’s impact on the environment.
Since 2005 the Pakenham factory alone has reduced its water use by 22.4 per cent, energy use by 33.9 per cent and waste production by 41.3 per cent.
Factory manager Andrew Nooy said for example since 2005 its waste-reduction equated to the size of 845 elephants.
He said that each year the factory developed an eco-plan.
“We work out a series of actions we want to take and what we want to accomplish by the end of the year,” he said.
Mr Nooy said it was necessary for changes to take place from an environmental, community and a business point of view.
“We are a well-known community business, so it’s important to show initiative and lead the way. It also helps us to educate our employees and hope that as individuals they can take the practices home,” he said.
“From a Nestle point of view, it reduces and improves the cost of our business.”
Mr Nooy said one of the main actions taken were systems to measure and record the usage of water and energy and the production of waste.
“If you can measure your consumption, then you can focus on it and then improve it,” he said.
The factory has saved an equivalent of 12 Olympic swimming pools of water since 2005. This has been through numerous actions including the installation of trigger-nozzle hoses, an Alto high pressure cleaning unit and additional water meters to expand monitoring points.
The factory could run for four months free on the amount of energy it has saved in just the past three years. Large amounts of energy have been saved through changes including replacing all warehouse lighting with more efficient units, increasing the temperature in the pizza freezer and setting a temperature of 23 degrees on all air-conditioners. Last year the factory won the Nestle Oceania Environmental Award for excellence in energy and water-saving efforts.
It is the factory’s waste reduction that has improved most since 2005.
“If we don’t produce waste, then we won’t have it and won’t have to get rid of it,” he said.
Mr Nooy said environmental awareness was in people’s minds these days and it was just a matter of them addressing old habits.
“It doesn’t take a lot of effort to get some good results – you just have to open your eyes and find ways you can reduce your usage,” he said.
– Bridget Cook
