This English cheese company won’t just be producing delicious dairy products with their famous Wensleydale cheeses – they will also be using their factory waste as a new source of cleaner renewable energy.
The Wensleydale Creamery will soon be using all of their whey waste to make biogas that is expected to heat about 800 English homes every year.
The creamery recently partnered with environmentalist fund manager Iona Capital to produce the biogas in their Yorkshire facility. Collectively, the venture will in turn produce 10,000 MWh of thermal power using a process called anaerobic digestion.
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The fund manager has already established nine anaerobic digestion facilities across Yorkshire, investing $127 million (£100 million) in the region, as well as opening its York office in June 2018. The renewable energy plants save the equivalent of 37,300 tons of CO2 each year.
Mike Dunn, co-founder of Iona, said: “This partnership with Wensleydale not only shows how we are turning waste food products into useful energy for homes and business, but also our commitment to Yorkshire.”
Furthermore, after the sustainable green gas has been created, they will take what’s left at the end of the process and fertilize neighboring farmland to improve local topsoil quality.
“This shows the real impact of the circular economy and the part intelligent investment can play in reducing our CO2 emissions.”
Wensleydale Creamery’s managing director David Hartley said: “The whole process of converting local milk to premium cheese and then deriving environmental and economic benefit from the natural by-products is an essential part of our business plan as a proud rural business.”
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