Muntons enjoys another A Rating for Supplier Engagement on Sustainability

Muntons is delighted to be given the rating of A- for Supplier Engagement on Sustainability by the CDP. We are extremely proud of how actively engaged we are with our supply chain championing sustainability as one of our core business values.

Technical and Sustainability Director for Muntons, Nigel Davies, comments, "This is the second time Muntons has been recognised as having an outstanding impact on supplier engagement. I have made it a personal mission to demystify sustainability jargon and share our many examples of practical carbon emissions-busting projects. Muntons is aligned with a decarbonisation strategy across its supply chain that will protect our planet. The recognition by CDP of being exemplary in championing this reality through supplier interaction is welcome and will embolden us to continue pressing on with this important agenda”

CDP is a not-for-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. The world’s economy looks to CDP as the gold standard of environmental reporting with the richest and most comprehensive dataset on corporate and city action.

Read about some of the projects we have been working on in our Sustainability Report.

Muntons make more than malt

Making malt is not enough for one UK maltster. Muntons based in Stowmarket, Suffolk, have just announced that they have reached a genuine milestone having generated 10 million Kilowatt hours of electricity since opening their Anaerobic Digester (AD) plant in 2015, enough electricity to power 2,000 average sized homes every year.

Muntons AD plant has been operational since January 2015 making Muntons the first maltster in the UK to take this bold step for increased sustainability. Not only does it generate electricity, it also makes significant reductions in road haulage. By using their own process waste water, residues from the processing of barley into malt and malt extract, they have saved the equivalent of 3,000 tonnes of Greenhouse gas emissions. This substantial saving is the equivalent of the emissions from 1,600 cars every year.

The Muntons AD plant doesn’t only produce electricity, a by-product of the process is a high quality digestate, or bio-fertiliser, which can then be used on local farms to enrich the soil, helping to ensure top quality crops are grown ready to be malted. It really is full circle sustainable thinking in action.

Nigel Davies, Muntons Director of Technical and Sustainability commented: “Our decision to build an AD plant has proved to be well founded, making a valuable contribution to our energy requirements. Generating energy locally is efficient and environmentally sound, and the positive impact on nature is significant, reducing greenhouse gasses and helping to enrich the soil on local farms.”

Muntons have calculated that since the plant was commissioned, they have produced 5,606,175 cubic metres of biogas. They have also treated 411,000 cubic metres of waste water, which is then safely introduced into the river Gipping to help keep the fish swimming and the river flowing.

Muntons leads the way in sustainability

Muntons is proud to be the first maltster to commit to the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap coordinated in the UK by WRAP, a not for profit organisation and IGD research and training charity. Muntons, the malt and malted ingredient manufacturer based in Stowmarket, Suffolk, have long been recognised as the leader in sustainability within the malting industry and with this initiative are expanding their leadership further by also helping to champion sustainability in the food industry.

Muntons food waste is minimal at 0.51% but the ethos of looking for any waste reduction opportunity and sharing our actions through case studies is consistent with their company values. An increasing number of businesses, now representing over 60% of the UK food and drink sector by turnover, are adopting the approach designed to ‘Target, Measure, Act’ on food waste; critical to the UK achieving national targets of a 50% food waste reduction by 2030 across the whole food chain.

To meet these national and global targets, a collaborative and concerted effort to reduce food waste is required. This will focus on the prevention of food surplus and waste being generated in the first place, redistributing surplus food that does arise and diverting surplus food which cannot be used to feed people into animal feed and high value biomaterial processing.

Muntons Director of Technical and Sustainability Dr Nigel Davies says “Muntons is pleased to promote the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap as a proactive focus with measurable outcomes. We are proud to continue to take the lead in the malting supply chain in adopting a practical sustainability ethos described here as: Target, Measure, Act.” He continued: “The agricultural supply chain uses valuable natural resources to create highly nutritive food yet globally at least 30% of that food is wasted before it gets to the consumer and then after it is taken home. Muntons is a strong supporter of the UN SDG’s and pleased to join the growing number of supply chain partners who think positively about a sustainable future that starts right now.”

Peter Maddox, WRAP Director, said: “The link between food waste and climate change is something we can no longer ignore. Globally, around a third of all food is wasted and the IPCC estimated that food waste contributed nearly 10% of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions, between 2010 and 2016. Having the support of companies like Muntons is crucial in helping to mitigate against this problem through their own actions, and by engaging with their customer base. We are delighted that Muntons is supporting the UK Food Waste Reduction Roadmap in this way and will work with its clients to influence change. We would encourage others to follow its lead.”

Anne Bordier, Charity Programmes Director at IGD, said: “I am delighted that Muntons has become the latest business to support the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, joining us on this incredibly important journey to reduce food waste. IGD and WRAP continue to work very closely with all the companies signed up to the Roadmap, giving them the tools to understand how they can measure and reduce food waste. Our industry has made great strides on this important issue, but we are not complacent – we recognise there is more we can, and will, be doing in the future.”

Notes to editor

IGD and WRAP led an industry-wide programme to develop the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap consulting with businesses, trade bodies and others from agriculture, food production and manufacture, retail and the hospitality and food service sector.

IGD is a research and training charity which sits at the heart of the food and grocery industry. It has a trading subsidiary that provides commercial services. The profits from these commercial services fund the charity. As a charity they exist to upskill people working in or looking to join the food and grocery industry and manage initiatives driven by research and best practice relating to science, technology or economics in the food industry.

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