Scotsburn Co-operative Services Ltd. is committed to protecting the environment and the health and safety of our employees, associates, customers and the communities in which we operate. To achieve this commitment:
- We will comply with, and whereas is reasonably practicable, exceed the applicable environmental legal and regulatory requirements.
- We will implement environment management systems to identify and manage environmental risks, obligations and opportunities.
- We will conduct environmental audits to ensure we are in compliance with this policy's objectives.
- We will promote environmental awareness, leadership and accountability among all employees.
- We will establish ways to measure, monitor and set goals to improve our environmental performance.
- The environmental committee will report quarterly to the CEO on its environmental performance and liability management.
- We will reduce our environmental impact by minimizing waste and emissions, reusing and recycling materials and responsibly managing energy use.
- We will work with our customers and suppliers to reduce the environmental impact of our products and packaging.
CEO, Scotsburn Dairy Group
The majority of our packaging is made of either high-density polyethylene (#2), polypropylene (#5) or polyethylene coated paper board (milk cartons) and can all be recycled. However access to recycling may be limited depending upon the recycling services available in your region. In addition to our recyclable packaging we also have internal systems at many of our plants designed to divert waste products and used packaging away from the waste stream to the appropriate recycling facilities. Reducing our impact on the landfill sights is an important part of our environmental stewardship activities.
In 1999 we established a no-idling policy for our cars and trucks to help reduce emissions, and save money by conserving fuel. In addition to this we also installed speed limiters on all of our trucks. These help to promote a cleaner environment, safer roads, and again reduce costs.
We are currently working to measure and understand the carbon emissions associated with our manufacturing practices and our fleet so that we can establish emission targets and identify opportunities to offset these emissions for 2012.
Water is an ingredient used in making some of our products. It is also used extensively to clean and sanitize our production equipment and facilities. In 2008 in an effort to reduce our water consumption at our novelty plant in Saint John, NB, we substituted water with glycol as a cooling mechanism for our ammonia compressor systems. The new glycol system was much more sustainable and in the first year we reduced our total water consumption from 85,000m3 to 58,000m3. Since the installation we continue to see improvements in water reduction in Saint John. Throughout Scotsburn we are continually seeking opportunities to improve on our water usage activities and ways to reduce our impact on the environment.
