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Get your free copy04 October 2013, 15:56 PM
- The UK's biggest family-owned cheese maker initially invested in renewable energy such as solar photovoltaic panels and biogas as a means to cut costs, but now its green credientials are seen as a benefit to the environment
The most recent addition to the company’s eco scheme is a biogas plant, able to transform biodegradable waste such as animal manure into energy. The idea cost £4 million, and the business can now claim total self-sufficiency when it comes to electricity. As a result, up to £1 million will be cut from energy costs.
The company expects to utilise bio-methane in 2014 in order to be able to independent from the national grid.
Richard Clothier, MD of Wyke Farms said, “Sustainability and environmental issues are increasing in importance to each and every consumer in the UK, and green energy makes both emotional and practical sense. It simply closes a cycle. We can now take the cow waste (which has inherently been a problem) and turn it into pure, clean energy to drive all our own needs and more. This is turn leaves a natural fertiliser that we can plough back into the land to invest in the future health and wellbeing of our cattle – and so that cycle starts again.”
