Maple Leaf Foods celebrates LEED Silver at its Hamilton plant
Maple Leaf Foods has announced that its Heritage plant in Hamilton has earned LEED Silver certification from the Canada Green Building Council.
The company, which has committed to reducing its carbon footprint, received a $2.6-million grant from the City of Hamilton. The funding helped to support the incorporation of several new design features which provide environmental and community benefits.
“We are really proud of what we have achieved at our Hamilton facility, and deeply appreciate the support we have received form the City of Hamilton,” said Randy Huffman, Maple Leaf Foods’ Chief Food Safety and Sustainability Officer. “It has been a journey to get here, and we look forward to leveraging our learnings as we continue to pursue our vision of being the most sustainable protein company on earth.”
Maple Leaf Foods officially opened the Hamilton plant in 2014. At the time, the facility brought together the operations of five other smaller sites into a more efficient and automated facility. The 500,000-square foot plant employs more than 900 people, and produces more than 500 of Maple Leaf’s products.
In the past few years, the Heritage facility has implemented several initiatives that have led to gradual reductions in Maple Leaf Foods’ environmental impact: a national LED lighting retrofit program, equipment efficiency and optimization upgrades, ammonia heat recovery and wasted heat recovery systems, composting and recycling programs, control measures and closed-loop systems for water use, and improvements to storage, handling and employee training to reduce food waste.
As a result, the plant has reduced its electricity intensity by 72.9%, natural gas intensity by 47.2%, water intensity by 54.8% all from a 2014 baseline, its solid waste intensity by 51% from a 2015 baseline, and food waste intensity by 45.4% since 2016.
Key building features that contributed to its efficiency included measures to encourage alternative transportation such as a bicycle storage area and the use of low emitting and fuel-efficient vehicles, optimizing energy performance, enhanced refrigeration management, water use reduction and using low-emitting materials, and maximizing open space to encourage interaction with the environment, among other environmentally friendly features.
Heritage is the second LEED certified building at Maple Leaf Foods, following the Meadowvale head office located in Mississauga.