By Solomon Asowata
The Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Ltd. says all its manufacturing plants will be powered in part by solar energy by December as its contribution to sustainable manufacturing.
Mr Matthieu Seguin, Managing Director, NBC, said this during a media tour of the company’s plant at Agidingbi, Ikeja on Wednesday.
Seguin said: “NBC is part of the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company group (CCHBC), which has an uncompromising commitment to minimise our environmental footprint whilst enriching the communities where we operate
“In line with this, CCHBC has instigated a set of sustainability commitments ahead of 2025 that address six major areas.
“They include the reduction of emissions, water use and stewardship, working towards a world without waste, ingredients sourcing, nutrition, people and communities.
“Advancing towards these commitments, NBC has mainstreamed sustainability into every aspect of our operations.”
He said NBC was committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2040 and had so far reduced 3,600 tons from its annual carbon footprint.
Seguin said the NBC plants in Challawa, Maiduguri, Abuja and Asijere were being powered in part by solar energy and were delivering up to 3,640-Kilowatt peak (KWp)power output to the facilities.
He said Ikeja, Benin, Owerri and Port Harcourt plants would be powered by solar energy by Dec. 2022, noting that the company was targeting to increase its solar generation capacity to 15,947KWp.
“Beyond the direct impact on reduced emissions, another indirect positive outcome of this project is that over 167,000 trees have been saved.
“The evolution and the implementation has supported the creation of 300 jobs with an additional 480 jobs forecast to be created in support of the system this year,” Seguin said.
He said NBC was also optimising its operations through heavy investments in Combined Heat and Power Plants (CHP) plants.
“With the technology of the CHP, after electricity is generated using gas to power the gas generators in the plant, the resultant exhaust gas and
heat is redirected from going into the atmosphere to generate steam.
“The heat from the steam is used as a secondary energy source to further power some aspects of our manufacturing operations.
“Today, we have six CHP plants in five of our eight manufacturing plants including Port-Harcourt, Ikeja, Benin, Owerri and Asejire Plants, all resulting in a significant reduction of our carbon footprints across the country.
“Overall, the six CHP plants generate 25.5MW of power delivering 125,267MWh of electrical energy including 68,267MWh as steam energy, as a bye product, which without the CHP would have been produced with fossil fuel.
“Collectively, the business invests over N1.7 billion in running the six CHPs annually,” Seguin said.
He added that the company had also embarked on fleet conversion/replacement to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG trucks) and already had 10 CNG trucks in its fleet.
Seguin said the constraint was the availability of CNG, and that government should encourage the setting up of more CNG filling stations across the country.
He said NBC had also started transitioning its diesel-powered forklifts to models powered by electricity; contributing further to our CO2 emissions savings as a business.
“So far 109 forklifts have transitioned, with a plan for all 200 forklifts used in the business to be transitioned by the end of this year, 2022,” Seguin said.
On her part, Mrs Oluwatoyin Agbenle, Controller of Environment in Lagos State, Federal Ministry of Environment, lauded NBC for taking the bold step to promote sustainable manufacturing.
She said the ministry would continue to encourage manufacturers to optimise use of natural resources and raw materials to reduce environmental impact in their operations. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
No comments:
Post a Comment