Carbon Journey

We’re taking our commitment to the planet one step further - pledging to become a carbon neutral business. To get there, we’ll be reducing our carbon footprint and then off-setting our carbon emissions - it’s a big goal, but we’re up for it

We’ve already made some really positive changes, but in order to determine exactly what’s needed to become certified carbon zero, we’ve started with a ‘where-are-we-at’ calculation. We now have a comprehensive picture of our emissions profile, and have identified a range of initiatives and projects to help us formulate a clear path forward over the next 5 years. This will include continuing to reduce our emissions, offsetting anything we can’t reduce, and building carbon into all key business decisions to ensure it becomes part of the fabric of the way we do business.

Over a period of five years, we’ve managed to reduce our effective carbon footprint by 1,000 tonnes of CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent) per year, thanks to some clever energy efficiency projects:

• Upgrading growing technology.
• Upgrading and retrofitting energy efficient parts or equipment - including boilers, fans, compressors and lights.
• Reducing energy loss through heat or steam leakage.
• Continually monitoring energy use data to identify, control and rectify any issues.
• Using more electric-powered vehicles on site
• Changing growing room lights to in-house designed LEDs - a world-first for mushroom growing

A key project underway is to replace our current diesel-fired boiler with a low carbon electric option.  This move is a game changer and will significantly reduce carbon emissions at our main farm by an estimated 39,000 tonnes of CO₂ over a 25-year lifespan for the new boiler.  This represents a 65% reduction in our fossil fuel usage.