Showing commitment
In 2007, Walkers became the first company in the world to display a carbon reduction logo on a consumer product.
The logo, developed with the Carbon Trust, represents our commitment to becoming more sustainable and to making our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint more transparent.
Working with Walkers since 2000, the Carbon Trust conducted an audit of our energy use, from field to shelf. As a result of this process, we were able both to work out our carbon footprint and to reduce our energy use per kilo by 32%.
The figure on the label illustrates the carbon footprint of the product from source to store. The downward arrow highlights a pledge to reduce that footprint year-on-year.
As well as serving to focus our efforts to reduce carbon emissions, we hope that the carbon reduction logo will encourage consumers to think about how their purchasing choices affect the environment.
Driving change
As the UK's biggest and most popular crisp manufacturer, Walkers uses hundreds of tonnes of potatoes to produce tens of millions of bags of crisps every day. Our site in Leicester alone uses around 800 tonnes of potatoes to produce 10 million bags of crisps, 360 days a year.
Our objective is to find the most sustainable way to transport the raw materials to our facilities and our finished products to customers across the UK.
We have an ongoing commitment to reduce our fuel use and eliminate empty journeys. In the second half of 2007, we increased the amount of product carried by each of our lorries, saving 157,000km, or 41,000ltr of fuel. In the first 3 months of 2008, we have already saved 90,000km. As well as saving road miles, we are also planning to use the waste oil from cooking our crisps in a biodiesel which fuels our delivery vehicles.
We have also introduced efficiency measures. Our vehicles are loaded more effectively and we have trained our 600 drivers to drive in the most efficient way possible. We also have a scheme to reward efficient driving.
In July 2007, we took another step to reduce the brand's carbon footprint by switching to 100% British potatoes. This has enabled us to reduce our food miles and further reduce our carbon emissions.
Using water wisely
Water is a precious resource, both for the environment and for the long-term sustainability of the food and drink industry. That is why we have taken significant measures to reduce our consumption.
This reduction was achieved by a comprehensive analysis of all water usage and improved measurement through the installation of water meters to cover the major usage areas. The Walkers team developed engineering solutions to reduce equipment water use and created sources for recycled water.
Training and communication sessions were held for all employees to promote awareness of the need to reduce water use and to demonstrate how they could play a part. Performance was tracked between lines and shifts, with the best performing teams being rewarded and recognised
for their efforts.
Projects are under way to capture water intake at all of our Walkers crisps manufacturing sites within 10 years, starting with our Leicester plant, eliminating the need to bring mains water onto our sites.
This strategy helped to reduce our water use per kilo on Walkers products by 42% between 2001 and 2007.
Making our packaging more sustainable
As the UK's largest crisp manufacturer, reducing our dependency on raw materials for our packaging is a central focus of our drive to become a more sustainable business. Balanced against the need to reduce our use of raw materials is the need to ensure that our products reach consumers in perfect condition.
To meet this challenge, Walkers has invested considerable resources into developing lighter weight packaging that still guarantees quality.
Consequently, we now use 4% less film than five years ago to produce our bags, 14% less plastic in multi-pack wrappers, and 9% less cardboard in our Doritos cases and16% less in our cases for Walkers.
We have plans to further reduce Walkers packaging weight by another 10% by 2010.
We are also exploring ways to reduce our packaging waste and have launched feasibility studies into the use of recycled plastic film in our multi-pack crisp packets, compostable and biodegradable films, and reducing the seal depth of our bags.
Recycling
As well as looking for ways to reduce the packaging, we are also making greater investment into recycling initiatives.
All Walkers packs are recyclable and all packaging waste generated as part of the production process is all recycled.
During 2007, this meant that over 700 tonnes of foil and plastic film waste were recycled to make park benches and garden furniture.
To boost pack recycling after use, we have invested in research and trials to understand how best to recover used packs and recycle them in an energy and resources efficient way.
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