Monday 19 April 2021

Canadian bakery aims to slice its carbon footprint with two renewable PPAs

Bimbo Canada has signed two virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs) with Renewable Energy Systems (RES) to procure green electricity and help the bakery reduce its carbon footprint.

The 15-year agreements will support the commercial development of two renewable energy projects in southern Alberta, consisting of wind and solar projects, with 170MW of installed capacity in total.

Under the VPPAs, Bimbo Canada - which owns brands including Dempster's, Stonemill and Ben's - will procure enough renewable electricity to offset electricity consumption for its 16 bakeries, 14 distribution centres and 191 depots.

The agreements, together with additional sustainability initiatives implemented by parent company Grupo Bimbo around the world, will help the company offset 90% of its global electricity consumption and 100% of its power consumption in Canada.

Commercial development of the solar and wind farms are to be finalised later this year by RES Canada and the projects are expected to be fully operational by the end of the year.

Daniel Servitje, Global CEO of Grupo Bimbo said: “The renewable electricity initiatives in our operations respond to Grupo Bimbo's deep commitment that we have had for many decades globally with the planet and with present and future generations.

“With this announcement, we have achieved another important milestone for our company on our journey towards becoming 100% renewable electricity by 2025.”

Last year, Bimbo Canada also exceeded its product waste reduction target by 18%, which helped save four million units of products from going to landfill.

In addition, it eliminated 174 metric tonnes of plastic per year – equivalent to 43 adult elephants – through several packaging optimisation initiatives.