MISSISSAUGA, ONT. — Maple Leaf Foods has announced it has been awarded LEED Silver certification by the Canada Green Building Council following energy-efficiency retrofits at its Heritage plant in Hamilton.
Maple Leaf had received a $2.6 million grant from the City of Hamilton supporting a number of sustainability measures, stated a release.
The 500,000-square-foot plant, which produces meat products, opened in 2014 and since then Maple Leaf has implemented such measures as an LED lighting retrofit program, equipment efficiency and optimization upgrades, ammonia heat recovery and wasted heat recovery systems, composting and recycling programs, control measures and closed-loop systems for water use, and improvements to storage, handling and employee training to reduce food waste.
Additional building features and practices included measures to encourage alternative transportation such as a bicycle storage area and the use of low emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles, optimizing energy performance, enhanced refrigeration management, water use reduction and using low-emitting materials.
As a result, the Heritage plant has reduced its electricity intensity by 72.9 per cent, natural gas intensity by 47.2 per cent and water intensity by 54.8 per cent from a 2014 baseline; solid waste intensity by 51 per cent from a 2015 baseline; and food waste intensity by 45.4 per cent since 2016.
“We are really proud of what we have achieved at our Hamilton facility, and deeply appreciate the support we have received form the City of Hamilton,” said Randy Huffman, Maple Leaf sustainability officer, in a statement. “It has been a journey to get here, and we look forward to leveraging our learnings as we continue to pursue our vision of being the most sustainable protein company on earth.”
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed