Cakes & Savouries

Ferguson Plarre is learning how to grow all over again

'We must be the change we want to see in the world' - Mahatma Gandi

On 3rd October 2008, Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses were the proud recipients of the Best Green Business Award at the national My Business Awards 2008.We're thrilled to be recognised for our approach to the environment and will continue to strive for reduced environmental impacts wherever possible!

On 5th June 2008 (World Environment Day), Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses was officially nominated as one of only 4 finalists in the business sustainability category of Australia's most prestigious environmental awards: The 2008 Banksia Awards. We would like to congratulate the winner of this category, ETIKO Fair Trade who were recognised for sourcing products that comply with strict ethical & environmental standards...a wonderful example of the difference that we can all make by doing the right thing!

Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses has an active greenhouse emissions abatement program and we believe that something as important as the environment deserves nothing less. Ferguson Plarre is in its 5th generation of family ownership and we believe that only through proactively seeking sustainable business practises will the future generations of our families and yours be able to enjoy the world as we know it today. Our abatement program includes these current initiatives at our new head baking facility:

• Rain water toilet flushing for office & staff facilities.
• Solar heated hot water for staff & office.
• High efficiency aircon for offices, staff amenities & climate controlled production areas involving "outside air optimisation" to reduce power consumption.
• All hot water required for cake production is preheated by energy recovered from our fridge systems. This equates to a saving of over 100 tonnes of CO2 per year through reduced gas consumption.
• Use of the heat recovered from freshly baked products (using exhaust fans and the heat taken from our cooling tunnels) to heat the main production area in winter & to minimise heat-bleed into refrigerated areas. This equates to a saving of over 2600 tonnes of CO2 per year through a 60% reduction in power usage per square metre.
• Installation of fully integrated SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition)energy monitoring system to allow "real time" monitoring of all energy consumption, both individually & collectively to allow full monitoring of all energy consumption of electricity & gas and the resulting CO2 emissions. This information is displayed on a screen in a high-traffic corridor and brings an amazing level of awareness to our team.
• Over 100,000 litres of rainwater tanks plumbed for irrigation and truck washing.
• Introduction of Victoria’s first Diesel Hybrid truck with Sustainability Victoria. We will measure fuel usage and bench mark the results against our fleet to assess the effectiveness of this technology and the likely payback period. Specialised insulation was sourced for the cabin to reduce weight and the associated emissions from carrying such weight. A 30% improvement in fuel efficiency has already been recorded.
• Switch from double to single daily deliveries to each store. Significant fuel and CO2 emission savings are already being acheived.
• The latest bulk raw material handling equipment eliminates approx 450 bags/wk from our system & halves our requirements for land fill. Our co-mingled waste has already been reduced by 50%.

Planting trees to offset our greenhouse gas emissions

For all of the greenhouse emissions that we cannot immediately abate at our head bakery (known as scope 1 and scope 2 emissions), we have committed to future offsetting by planting trees through Greenfleet. Our aim is zero emissions and reaching this target will eventually mean that we will not have to plant any trees at all. So while offsetting is not the ultimate answer for Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses, it plays a vital role in helping us reduce our carbon footprint as we journey towards our ultimate goal of zero emissions. As well as reducing greenhouse gases, planting native trees helps restore native forests, improves water quality, reduces soil degradation and provides an essential habitat for native species. Recent 'Green Carbon' research conducted by the Australian National University revealed that tall wet eucalypt forests contain up to 10 times more carbon per hectare than previously realised. This research confirms that natural forests play a critical role in regulating greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

Carbon Neutral?

We would like to confirm that Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses is NOT a carbon neutral company. We DO offset 100% of our scope 1 & 2 emissions but to be officially 'carbon neutral' we would need to know our scope 3 emissions. This involves finding out the carbon footprint of every process involved in making our cakes & savouries from the fuel that runs the tractor that farms the wheat for our flour to the power required to process the chocolate we purchase! Unfortunately this information is not currently available to all Australian bakeries. We have partnered with Sustainability Victoria in order to discover our total carbon footprint and what we can do to minimise and eventually eliminate any negative effect that our company has on the planet.

Beware of 'greenwashing'. It's what corporations do when they try to make themselves look more environmentally friendly than they really are. This diminishes the meaning of being green and the efforts of those companies truly attempting to do the right thing. So when a company states that they are 'green' or 'carbon neutral', they need to be offsetting or eliminating their scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. This claim can only be supported by an independantly verified audit made by a company certified to undertake such audits...and it's no small task. Don't be afraid to ask for proof of how a company is 'carbon neutral' or 'green' if you really want to maximise the impact of your 'green' dollars!

Mt Worth tree planting...

Here's an ariel view of where our first forest of 7315 trees were planted in May 2008 at Mt Worth - 15km south of Warragul between Leongatha and Warragul:

Helping educate our children:

Here's an email from The Year 8 Enrichment Class from Taylors Lakes Secondary College:

Thursday, 18 September 2008

Dear Mr. Plarre,

Thank you very much for giving our class the opportunity to visit your factory. What you have done to make your factory more environmentally friendly has motivated us to make our school and homes greener. We were very impressed with all the improvements that you've made and how much energy you save.

Now that we have visited you, we have become inspired to make greener changes to our school like buying more water tanks, using energy efficient light bulbs, planting trees and using green energy, like you did with your factory.

We were very grateful that you gave us the opportunity to observe your factory and we hope to make our school green and environmentally friendly.

Thank you, again and good luck for the future and we hope that we become as green as you!

Sincerely,

The Year 8 Enrichment Class.

P.S. Your cakes rock!!

How can you help?

A good place to start is the Cool It site of the Australian Greenhouse Office. Copy and paste this link into your web browser for great tips on how to minimise your personal emissions: www.greenhouse.gov.au/gwci/index.html

Green website developer

The website developer that built this website (Reactive Media Pty Ltd) is certified carbon neutral.