IN A move to further reduce its carbon footprint and environmental impact, leading meals provider, apetito has completed a major installation project to significantly increase the number of solar panels across its main manufacturing site in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
Alongside placing new panels across all viable roofs on the site, apetito has gone one step further in its dedication to sustainable business practices through constructing 43 innovative solar car ports over its car parks to house additional panels.
The canopies have been specially designed to maximise the solar generation across the space, whilst also enhancing the parking facilities for all its staff members.
Lee Sheppard, group director of sustainability, said: “We know that, as part of the Plan for Change, the Government is calling for businesses to better utilise the space of their existing car parks by investing in solar car ports that will produce clean, renewable energy to power their operations.
“We are proud to already be making strides with this initiative to significantly increase our self-generation of electricity, particularly across our manufacturing site, supporting our ambitious emissions reduction targets and ensuring that we decarbonise the business in the right way.”
The £1.3m investment demonstrates apetito’s commitment to utilising renewable energy sources, with the panels now providing 15 per cent of all electricity used on the site and saving an estimated 245 tonnes of CO2e per year for the business.
With electricity representing almost 30 per cent of apetito’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions, completing this installation provides an important step in decarbonising the business and is a key initiative supporting apetito to reach its ambitious short-term 2025 carbon reduction targets – whilst on the wider journey to Net Zero by 2040.