Leading soft drinks company, Britvic, has announced that it is stepping up efforts to reduce its carbon footprint by investing £8 million to enhance efficiency at its Beckton factory in London. This move will involve the installation of a new heat recovery system, which is expected to reduce factory emissions by 1,200 tonnes per year. This amount is equivalent to the annual energy usage of around 500 homes in the UK.
The project will be partly funded by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, which has provided a grant of £4.4 million. The new heat recovery system will replace natural gas boilers with carbon-free heat extractors, further reducing the company’s carbon footprint. Nigel Paine, the Supply Chain Director, stated that the company will continue to supply the nation with its popular drinks such as Robinsons, Tango, and Pepsi Max while also reducing the company’s carbon footprint.
Thanks to the grant provided by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, this project will take advantage of waste heat recovered from Britvic’s existing systems, increasing the temperature and redistributing it throughout the site. This will involve replacing the current steam system with a new low-temperature hot water network, thereby decarbonising 50% of the site’s heat demand by shifting the heat source away from fossil fuels.
Sarah Webster, the Director of Sustainable Business at Britvic, stated that this new investment is a significant milestone in the company’s journey to reduce its scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions according to its science-based targets and Healthier People Healthier Planet sustainability strategy. She further added that the support received from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero establishes a precedent for meaningful, long-lasting solutions to protect the planet.
The new heat recovery system project is set to commence at the end of 2023, and it represents a significant step towards Britvic’s commitment to reducing its direct emissions by 50% by 2025 and the company’s net-zero target by 2050, which has been verified by the Science Based Target initiative. Britvic has made significant progress in reducing its direct carbon emissions by 34% since 2017.
