OUR ENVIRONMENT
“Our mission is to help the farmer to feed the UK in a more sustainable way”
The Group has been progressing with its main environmental target to reach net zero carbon emissions with our own operations (scope 1 + scope 2) by 2040.
This progress has focused on internal operations across the group with investments in manufacturing efficiencies alongside low carbon technology. Further investments in low carbon electricity generation have been agreed for 2023.
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
The Group recognises the significance of climate change and its impact as a business risk. We are on a journey to reduce our impact on the environment reducing carbon emissions in our own operations (scope 1 + scope 2) and influences a reduction in the wider supply chain (scope 3). We recognise that tackling climate change requires a long term approach, so we are supportive of the TCFD’s aims and objectives. With this in mind, we anticipate it will take time to map all risks ensuring we develop a rigorous system over the next 12 months to fully integrate the recommendations of TCFD within the way we operate and undertake business. As a requirement of an AIM-listed business, Wynnstay will be preparing a full TCFD to be reported in our 2023 Annual Report.
INTERNAL OPERATIONS
Manufacturing Efficiencies
As detailed in 2021 Annual Report, an investment program in our manufacturing feed mill at Carmarthen site is underway. As a result of this continued investment to install new plant and equipment, we have seen a typical 30% energy reduction in kilowatt (kW) input to tonnes output. news can be found here.
Low Carbon Technology
We are on-track with our LED lighting roll out plans and have installed LED lighting at 90% of our own sites. Our plan is to install LED lighting at all our other sites by the end of 2023. The impact of this has resulted in over 50% energy saving across the sites.
We currently have 18 hybrid engine vehicles which represents 12% of our company car fleet. With the current vehicles “on order” and no increase in company car numbers this figure will rise to 18%. We have not yet introduced full electric vehicles as there is concern over range and charging infrastructure. We have trialled an electric van and believe there are areas of the business where this type of vehicle would work.
As we progress with investments in low carbon hybrid-engine vehicles, we have installed 24 electric vehicles charging points at 6 of our sites.
With a large forklift truck (FLT) fleet across our depot and manufacturing site network, we have successfully trialled electric powered FLT’s at a high usage warehouse site. As a result of these trials, we aim to transition across to electric FLT’s in line with our fleet renewal schedule, moving from 30% of the fleet running on electric today towards 100% over the next 7-10 years.
As detailed in last year’s report, we have been utilising various blends of biofuels ranging from 7% up to 20%. Generally, these have performed well, however we do need to investigate further the impact of weather on the performance and how frequently fuel filters need changing. We aim to continue with our program of using B20 fuel in the summer and a lower blend in the winter. Availability of new heavy goods vehicles (HGV’s) has restricted the opportunity to trial any further bio-blend levels. Onwards plans for the next 2 years are to reduce the average age of the fleet, this will improve fuel usage alongside provide further scope for trial work.
The Group has a large electricity demand; this is predominantly utilised at manufacturing sites. As the Group continues to grow and decarbonise, we are mindful that our electricity requirements will increase (carbon emissions moving from Scope 1 to Scope 2).
We have recently agreed to install 1MWp of solar PV (photovoltaics) panels on six of our sites with high electricity usage. We will benefit from self-generating a portion of our own electricity, reducing reliance on the national grid infrastructure, alongside reducing our carbon emissions associated with energy usage. We expect this initial investment to reduce our scope 2 emissions by up to 5% (based on current electricity usage). This is the first stage of a multisite investment rollout of renewables over the next three to five years.