Environmental Performance
We seek to operate in a way that is as environmentally sustainable as practical, while working continuously to reduce our environmental impact.
Our approach
By using resources such as energy and water more efficiently, and reducing waste, we can also achieve reductions in operational costs. Improving the Company’s environmental sustainability, therefore, is not only good for the environment but can also be beneficial financially.
Tate & Lyle’s environmental policy and standards apply to all our activities globally, and we aim to integrate environmental considerations into all major decisions.
We expect all of our facilities to meet their environmental permits at all times. On the rare occasion that a site exceeds any of its operating limits we take immediate action to correct the issue and prevent a recurrence. We have an annual internal audit programme to confirm compliance with our environmental management standards. We also have a programme of external environmental compliance audits to ensure that regulatory requirements are met.
Within our own operations (and joint ventures) we focus on those aspects of our activities that have the greatest potential impact on the environment. These are: energy use and consequent carbon footprint; water use; and waste.
Beyond our own operations – across our products’ complete life cycle – we focus our attention on our raw material supply chain, the transportation of our products to our customers, and our products’ packaging.
Results for the year
In calendar year 2011, versus 2010:
- Energy use was flat overall, reducing slightly by 0.3% per tonne of production, due to a sustained focus on running manufacturing operations across the Company in a smooth and efficient manner.
- Primary carbon footprint from energy use was flat overall, reducing slightly by 0.2% per tonne of production, in line with the slight energy efficiency improvement noted above.
- Water use reduced by 2% per tonne of production, due to good process and water use management with smooth, non-interrupted production runs across the business. About 0.5% of this reduction is due to the replacement of a well water meter at Lafayette Sagamore, USA.
- Waste to landfill increased by 9% per tonne of production, due to: winter conditions in the first quarter of 2011 affecting aerobic bio-solids digestion at Lafayette Sagamore, such that this material had to be sent to landfill; and, increased production volumes at several facilities leading to temporarily increased waste levels until we had optimised the processes affected. In 2012, the utilisation of new external waste recovery facilities in the USA, which use anaerobic digestion to produce energy from waste, is one of the initiatives we are taking to drive reductions in waste to landfill.
Outlook
During the last year we have established new targets for environmental performance and embedded these into the personal objectives of individuals across the Company from the top down. We recognise that by restarting our McIntosh, Alabama SPLENDA® Sucralose facility and installing new air emissions control equipment at several locations our challenge to reduce energy use and waste will increase. Our new environmental targets will help us address this.
We also aim to:
- improve further our understanding of the carbon and water footprint of our products across their complete lifecycle; and,
- work more closely with our customers on reducing our joint environmental impact and with our suppliers on sustainable agriculture within our raw material supply chain.
The commissioning of a biomass-fired boiler at our joint venture manufacturing facility in Hungary in calendar year 2012 is one of the projects being undertaken to further improve environmental performance.
Environmental sustainability targets
After a programme of engagement with key stakeholder groups – including customers, investors and employees, last year we adopted the following mid-term environmental sustainability targets for end of calendar year 2016:
CO2 emissions target*
12.5% reduction, per tonne production, baseline year 2008
2011 Status: 10% reduction
Packaging reduction target
Implement packaging reduction programmes with customers comprising 50% of Sales (£)
2011 Status: pilot programmes initiated
Transport efficiency target
Implement transport efficiency programmes with customers comprising 50% of Sales (£)
2011 Status: pilot programmes initiated
Sustainable agriculture target
Implement sustainable sourcing programmes for our top-20 raw materials by volume and any sustainability risk materials
2011 Status: pilot programmes initiated
Going forward, we shall develop additional environmental sustainability
targets, including for waste.
* We recognise that restarting our McIntosh, Alabama SPLENDA® Sucralose manufacturing facility and installing new air emissions control equipment at several locations will make it more challenging to improve our energy use and waste performance in the short-term.
Environement reporting notes:
- We report environmental performance for Tate & Lyle owned and joint venture manufacturing facilities globally for the annual period 1 January to 31 December 2011.
- We report environmental performance by calendar year because we are required to do so for regulatory purposes.