The steps we're taking to reduce our footprint

We are always striving to drive energy efficiency across our business and believe in using less, buying better and self-generating more.

Using Less – Through our energy efficiency programmes, we have reduced carbon emissions by 18.8% since 2007/08 . We have done this in various ways, such as increased oven insulation, gas burners that shut down automatically when there are gaps in production and the re-use of plant waste heat to hear our hot water systems.

Buying better –We purchase our electricity with a Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin (REGO) which ensures that our supplier provides us with energy from a zero carbon renewable source.

Self-generating more – We continue to invest in renewable energy through solar and wind power, in addition to Combined Heat and Power (CHP) technology which has enabled us to reduce our bakeries electricity emissions by 56.2%.

As we develop our world class distribution network, we’re continually enhancing our capabilities by investing in new vehicles, technologies and infrastructure. At the same time, as a large fleet operator, it is really important that we act responsibly and ensure we work hard to reduce our carbon impact and our overall fuel consumption.

With electric vehicle development still in its infancy in the UK, especially when it comes to larger vehicles and charging infrastructure, we are prepared to invest now to be at the forefront of this emerging technology. Therefore, we are proud to have recently taken ownership of two of the first fully electric, zero-emission trucks in the UK – a 7.5 tonne Mercedes E Canter and a 16 tonne Renault DZE. On the road in early 2021, they will be part of our secondary fleet and will serve customers in Manchester and London.

They form the first part of a provisional rollout plan that will see us put around 40+ zero emission vehicles on the road over the next seven years.

Additionally, following successful trials in 2018, we’re now beginning to transition our Primary fleet over to bio-CNG (compressed natural gas) which is a clean sustainable alternative to diesel. Our intention is to transition our entire Primary fleet to bio-CNG over the next five years, starting with 16 vehicles in 2021. This will achieve an 85% reduction in Primary fleet CO2 emissions.

Through our FleetBoard telematics system, we have reduced our diesel by 11% and our carbon emissions by 4,500 tonnes of CO2e across Warburtons’ 800-strong secondary distribution fleet. Routing and scheduling software is also used as part of an integrated process to optimise delivery routes, which over time has reduced distance travelled considerably and resulted in the reduction of fuel used.

In our primary operation, we operate a central planning control tower that plans our primary network each day based on product availability and delivery deadlines, to wherever possible ensure that empty legs are minimised. Approximately 50% of our primary fleet are double deck trailers, with trailer design optimised to ensure maximum load fill. We have altered the specification of our single deck trailers to incorporate a “boat tail” at the rear of the trailer. We currently have 22 in service; the remainder of our single deck fleet will have this design included as they fall due for replacement over the years.

All our vehicles are specified with cruise control, engine idle cut off and exhaust brakes to minimise environmental impact.

We take great pride in making our products and hate to see them wasted. Within our operations, we are proud to say we have avoided sending any Warburtons food product to landfill since 2015. Where surplus does occur it is made into animal feed or redistributed to Fareshare, Company Shop or other charitable organisations. Since 2017, we have redistributed over 235 tonnes to help those in need.

We continue to support WRAP’s Courtauld Commitment 2025 on specific waste reduction projects and promote the Love Food Hate Waste programme to help our consumers to understand the importance of reducing food waste.

As a family business we recognise that we must take a responsible approach to how we package our products to minimise our impact on the planet for future generations. We want to ensure that we’re doing what’s right for the environment while continuing to deliver quality products that our customers expect from us.

As things stand today, we know that our packaging isn’t perfect; we know that we have a job to do in delivering long-term solutions to both mitigate climate change and to reduce environmental contamination and impact.

This isn’t going to be easy but rest assured that we are committed to making the right long-term decisions and we’re working hard to make sure that we get it right.

To do this, we have prioritised our plan of action taking into account the well-established waste hierarchy and the level of challenge for individual materials while also ensuring products reach customers in the best possible condition. There are three main principles for us to consider:

• Providing the highest quality products
• Ensuring our packaging solutions help preserve, reduce food waste and promote our products.
• Protect our products against risk of damage or contamination.

Our plan and the things we are currently working on are:

• Recycle – As of today, 50% (by weight) of our packaging materials are currently recyclable – we need to increase this percentage whilst also making it easier for our consumers to recycle.
• Remove & Reduce – the infrastructure in the UK isn’t yet set up to support the recycling of all packaging materials in the home, therefore we need to work hard to develop opportunities to ensure our packaging doesn’t go to landfill and remove and reduce packaging materials where possible
• Innovation – working with our suppliers to develop new materials that provide the right level of protection for our products, but come with better environmental credentials.

Our aim is to reduce our overall, non-product, water usage by making sure we have well-managed processes in place.  These have enabled us to reduce our water usage by 37, 289m3 since 2015, a reduction of 8.2%. 

As a business, we signed up to the FDF’s Ambition 2025, and are committed to reducing our water usage even further.