Ferguson Plarre's Bakehouse Sustainability

Our position on Global Warming

With all of the debate and statistics thrown around in the media, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. At Ferguson Plarre, we’ve simply acknowledged that humankind has had a negative impact on the planet. You don’t need to be a scientist to see this. Having been around for over 120 years, we also have a relatively unique business perspective on the importance of what the future holds for us and our families. We’ve simply decided that it’s our job to do what we can to ensure our families inherit a world that is in better shape than if we’d done nothing.

The Ferguson Plarre forest

In 2007 we started planting the Ferguson Plarre forest with our offset partners Greenfleet. Our forests now include over 40,000 trees and while they’re doing a great job of turning CO2 into oxygen, they’re also helping to support our natural Australian fauna and reducing soil erosion.

Sun Baked - Baking with solar energy!

Since 2018, Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses have been baking with the power of the sun. During the summer months, over 60% of our peak energy can be drawn directly from the sun. Thousands of roof panels were installed n 2018 helping to take our Gold Banksia Award winning bakery to the next level.

What We've Done

Below is a list of the many environmental initiatives we’ve engaged in over the last 15 years. Some of them make a big difference and some of them make only a small difference. The important thing is they all make a difference. Our planet has been negatively impacted a little bit at a time. It will be fixed by lots of little bits improving over time. At our main baking facility - Rain water toilet flushing - Solar heated hot water for staff amenities - High efficiency air conditioning and climate control to reduce temperature bleed between baking areas - All hot water for our cake and pie production is preheated using energy recovered from our fridge motors - Heat recovered from freshly baked products (using exhaust fans and the heat taken from cooling tunnels) heats the main production area in winter and minimises heat-bleed into refrigerated areas - Over 100,000 litres of rainwater tanks plumbed for irrigation and truck washing - Victoria’s first Diesel Hybrid truck launched with Sustainability Victoria - Route planning for deliveries designed outside of peak hour traffic to reduce fuel consumption. - Wind deflectors fitted to all trucks to reduce drag and the associated fuel costs - Bulk raw material handling equipment eliminates half of our requirements for land fill - Over 95% of all waste is channelled back into recycling streams including but not limited to: plastic, tin, wood and food. All non-meat food waste is donated to farmers for animal stock feed or converted into biofuel or fertilizer. - We’ve hosted hundreds of bakery tours for students and professionals to help inspire further sustainable thinking in business - Chemicals used in our retail stores replaced with natural enzyme based solutions

Formal Recognition of our Work

- We are the proud recipients of a Banksia Award for excellence in business sustainability, arguably Australia's most prestigious national business sustainability award - Overall winner of the Origin Gold Banksia Award for excellence in sustainability - NAB Agribusiness Award for Environment and Energy Management - Best Green Business Award at the national My Business Awards - Induction into the Manufacturing Hall of Fame - Inclusion as a case study in numerous university books and study programs - Inclusion in workplace sustainability study programs

Elimination of harmful cleaning chemicals

In 2022 we embarked on a mission to avoid or eliminate the volume of harmful chemicals used in the cleaning of our retail stores. We've successfully transitioned to an effective enzyme based solution that not only keeps our stores perfectly clean & safe but uses naturally occuring enzymes in the cleaning process.

Ferguson Plarre’s Bakehouse Sustainability Actions