Inside General Mills
| June 1, 2010 |
General Mills Corporate Communications |
Harnessing wind power in Spain
Last year, the General Mills plant in San Adrian, Spain, switched to an electricity provider that uses only renewable sources such as wind power.
The move saves € 125,000 (US$175,000) per year in costs and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by more than 6,000 tons.
The San Adrian plant, which produces a range of Old El Paso products, now gets 100 percent of its electricity – and a third of its energy overall – from renewable sources. But that’s only the beginning of San Adrian’s environmental improvement efforts.
The plant is achieving equally impressive results in many other areas:
- A savings of 170,000 kilowatts per year in electricity by reducing the load on air compressors.
- Water consumption is down 58 percent over the past five years due mostly to “people paying more attention.”
- Waste sent to landfills is down 67 percent over the five-year history of the plant, mostly thanks to an improved recycling system that makes use of easy-to-spot colored containers.
“The entire team at San Adrian has dedicated itself to saving money while saving the earth,” says Plant Manager John Roszbach. “It’s been incredible to see what can be achieved through single-minded dedication to an ideal.”
This is just one of the dozens of stories in our Corporate Social Responsibility 2010 report detailing how General Mills keeps working to be a more sustainable company and to make the world a better place.
Inside General Mills
