An up to $170 million investment from the United States Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstration may soon be bolstering Kraft Heinz’s operational footprint, as the company has been selected for award negotiations to support the implementation of clean energy projects at 10 of its U.S. plants.
“At Kraft Heinz, we’re on a journey to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” said Marcos Eloi Lima, Chief Procurement and Sustainability Officer at Kraft Heinz. “This investment will give us critical resources to make necessary improvements in our plants to help increase their energy efficiency and reduce emissions. This investment recognizes our continued efforts to reduce our environmental footprint, and we’re eager to get started.”
The 10 sites being bolstered by this investment include Champaign, Illinois.; Columbia, Missouri; Fremont, Ohio; Holland, Michigan; Kendallville, Indiana; Lowville, New York; Mason City, Iowa; Muscatine, Iowa; New Ulm, Minnesota; and Winchester, Virginia. These plants produce various food products, and these new projects’ technologies can be replicated across a wide range of food and beverage manufacturers, a press release explained.
Kraft Heinz will optimize the funds to install a range of technologies, including heat pumps, electric heaters, electric boilers, anaerobic digestors, biogas boilers, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, and thermal energy storage.
The recent investment will fund part of “The Delicious Decarbonization Through Integrated Electrification and Energy Storage” project, helping these locations reduce annual emissions by more than 99 percent from 2022 levels. The project is set to significantly benefit these 10 plants by 2030, as estimated below (compared to 2022 levels):
“The infrastructure changes made at these 10 plants will allow us to replicate successful technologies and processes across our remaining U.S. plants and globally, making us more efficient as we continue to make upgrades to more locations,” added Helen Davis, SVP and Head of North America Operations at Kraft Heinz. “I’m proud of the impact this project and award will have on our facilities, but also on our current and future workforce and the communities that surround our operations.”
Read more about Kraft Heinz’s latest operational strategy here. And stick with DMN for more industry updates.
