Water is an essential resource for Ingham’s, and we’re continually driving more sustainable water management in our business to reduce our environmental footprint.
Pictured (left to right) are Paul Stevenson, Alan Garrod and Nishant Goundar who are helping us to reduce our water usage and our environmental footprint.
Our primary processing plants use water as they process birds. Our Bolivar Primary Processing Plant in South Australia has the highest water usage in our business, using 20 per cent of all water. Despite this, it is one of four Ingham’s sites certified to the international Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) standard for its sustainable water usage.
In April, the Bolivar team took on an additional challenge to reduce its water usage through a project known as Bolivar Blue. The Bolivar Blue project set an ambitious target to reduce water usage by 20 per cent; from 18.3 litres down to 15 litres per bird processed. Their target will reduce annual water usage by 80 Olympic-sized swimming pools, the equivalent of 200 million litres of water.
The philosophy used by the Bolivar Blue project team was simple and based on the following guiding principles:
- challenge the status quo by questioning current use rates and settings
- challenge existing norms and behaviours such as “it’s always been done this way”, and
- investigate opportunities to recycle water in certain processes or areas in the plant.
Pleasingly, the Bolivar Blue project team has already reduced water usage by 11 per cent – or 100 million litres of water – and are well on track to achieve their targeted 20 per cent reduction by the end of the year.
Ingham’s is committed to Nourish our World and our planet through an ongoing commitment to manage sustainable water and environmental practices.