Our production process will be powered mainly by an electric heat pump, rather than a conventional steam system normally fed by natural gas. This is a first in the Netherlands, where a transformation like this is unheard of for a company of our size! Thanks to this operation, we’ll be able to reduce our CO2 emissions by more than 6,000 tonnes per year. To give another example, we also plan to transfer the milk condensate generated during the production process back into the water circuit, which will help us to lower our water consumption by almost 20%.
At each stage of the production and building design process, our project team sought to use the most energy-efficient technologies. For instance, we invested in new-generation air compressors that recover and feed back into the production system the energy used to cool them. And since our two plants will be interconnected, the current site will also benefit from all these advances.
As a systems integrator, SPIE played a critical role in making all this possible. We’ve entrusted the Group with a wide-ranging project encompassing heating, ventilation and air conditioning, piping, electrical systems and instrumentation, and utility services and building management. SPIE’s employees have worked hand in hand with all our partners in different countries using our digital building information modelling (BIM) tool. They were also able to turn our innovative ideas into realistic and effective solutions. Today I’m proud of everything that’s been accomplished.
