Bonduelle Fresh Americas Furthers Its Commitment to Reducing Environmental Impact with Cogeneration System

IRWINDALE, Calif., Feb. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Bonduelle Fresh Americas, formerly Ready Pac Foods, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bonduelle (BON.PA), today announced investment in and installation of an energy-efficient cogeneration system at the company's Irwindale, Calif. production plant. This integrated system will simultaneously supply the plant with electricity while using the waste heat to provide chilled water to the facility through an absorption chiller. This system will decrease overall energy consumption, lower greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the plant's carbon footprint.

"We believe that nature is our future at Bonduelle, and one of our major objectives is to reduce our impact on the environment," said Bonduelle Fresh Americas CEO Mary Thompson. "This cogeneration system, the first of its kind for Bonduelle in North America, is one big step toward producing our fresh salads, meals and snacks more sustainably."

Cogeneration systems are inherently more energy efficient since they are able to manage the production of two energy vectors in a continuous, reliable and safe way. The Irwindale system will be able to self-produce more than 75 percent of its own energy, reducing the plant's dependence on the local power grid. This reduction has the potential to yield up to an 80 percent decrease in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) emissions and a projected 58 percent decrease in natural gas offsets. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019.

"With our new cogeneration capabilities, we've estimated that our Irwindale plant will reduce its CO2-e emissions by approximately 6,000 metric tons – which is equivalent to more than 1,200 vehicles being driven for one year," said Mathew Caldwell, Bonduelle Fresh Americas Senior Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility. "We continue to work with key industry partners to improve our operational energy performance, and we believe this is the right technology to reduce our carbon footprint – a critical component of achieving our corporate social responsibility objectives."

Bonduelle's corporate social responsibility objectives for 2025 include reducing our environmental impacts; encouraging employees to take part in CSR efforts; feeding people and feeding them sustainably; promoting sustainable agriculture; and ensure the well-being of our employees and communities. To date, Bonduelle Fresh Americas has:

• Deployed a cross-functional waste management team to address the challenge of food and industrial waste across the company's value chain. 
• Created a packaging task force to identify ways to reduce the total amount of plastics used, transition to more recyclable products, increase our percentages of post-consumer recycled content, and educate consumers on recycling to promote circularity.
• Achieved a 25 percent reduction in water consumption at our Florence, N.J. plant through employee awareness and targeted equipment updates.
• Donated more than 660,000 meals to food banks, community charities and disaster relief efforts in 2018.

About Bonduelle Fresh Americas
Bonduelle Fresh Americas is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bonduelle (BON.PA). With four processing facilities throughout the U.S., the business unit focuses on fresh vegetables, salads and fresh meal solutions for the Americas. Acquired by Bonduelle in 2017 as Ready Pac Foods, the renamed Bonduelle Fresh Americas is the newest of the company's five business units. The company manufactures a complete range of products featuring fresh produce and protein under the company's Ready Pac Foods®, Bistro®, Ready Snax®, Cool Cuts®, elevĀte™, Bonduelle Fresh Picked™ and Bonduelle Heat & Eat Harvest Bowl™ brands. Offerings include fresh-cut salads, fresh-cut vegetables, snacking and fresh prepared meals available where consumers buy groceries and in restaurant chains across North America. Visit Bonduelle Fresh Americas or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Bonduelle's Commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility
Bonduelle's vision is to create a better future through plant-based foods. We believe that we must lead the way and offer innovative products and solutions to feed people more sustainably, respect our planet, and promote the well-being of generations to come. This is why we are on a mission to secure B Corp certification—a label reserved for the most firmly committed businesses in terms of transparency, responsibility, and environmental and social performance. You can learn more about our 2025 corporate social responsibility strategy and commitments here.

SOURCE Bonduelle Fresh Americas