Kraft Heinz Eyes $170mn US Government Net Zero Grant
Multinational food company Kraft Heinz is looking to launch a programme of clean energy projects at 10 of its US plants, after being selected for award negotiations to receive US$170m from the US Department of Energy (DoE).
The money is from the DoE's Office of Clean Energy Demonstration, and is to support the implementation of clean energy projects across the country.
Kraft Heinz hopes the new projects’ technologies can be replicated across a wide range of food and beverage manufacturers.
The money will go towards Kraft Heinz’s Delicious Decarbonisation programme, which is based on integrated electrification and energy storage technologies. The aim is to help the company's production sites halve annual emissions, and is a key plank in its net-zero ambitions.
“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 recognises our continued efforts to reduce our environmental footprint and we’re eager to get started.”
Kraft Heinz using heat pumps & biogas boilers
Kraft Heinz will use the funds to install a range of technologies, including heat pumps, electric heaters, electric boilers, anaerobic digesters, biogas boilers, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic and thermal energy storage.
The company anticipates the project will create 500 construction jobs across the 10 sites.
Helen Davis, SVP and Head of North America Operations at Kraft Heinz, said: “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.”
Helen added: “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.
