Leo Varadkar in Clonmel
Installation of Ireland’s largest rooftop solar panel farm and removal of plastic from can packaging
Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, officially opened C&C Group’s new Sustainability Project at the Bulmers Cider manufacturing facility in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, on Friday 18 February.
This project forms part of C&C Group’s broader ESG strategy and commitment to delivering to a better world.
The Bulmers Sustainability Project includes the installation of what is now the largest rooftop solar panel farm in Ireland, which will reduce the Clonmel site’s carbon emissions by 4%, saving 286,746kg of CO2 per year and almost 10 million kg over the next 20 years. The solar panels provide 10% of electricity used on site, meaning 100% of the electricity used in the Bulmers manufacturing facility in Clonmel is provided by renewable sources. Additionally, the company committed significant investment into ‘dry end’ packaging machinery to reduce the environmental impact and ecological footprint of consumer packaging.
As of January 2022, plastic is no longer used in the packaging of C&C Group’s canned products in Clonmel, which will result in 100 million mid cone rings per annum being removed from the environment.
These initiatives form part of C&C Group’s comprehensive ESG strategy, which include working with the Science Based Targets initiative (‘SBTi’) to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 35%, and Scope 3 emissions by 25% by 2030. C&C Group has also pledged to be a carbon‐neutral business by 2050.
Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, commented:
“Congratulations to C&C Group for making these changes, which will reduce the Clonmel site’s overall emissions by 4% and the environmental impact from the packaging of Bulmers and other canned products. Enterprise has a really important role to play in bringing down our emissions and it’s great to see companies taking the lead and setting an example with their actions.
We recently launched a website, www.climatetoolkit4business.gov.ie, which is a good place to start for any company thinking of making changes themselves. It’s so important that we help businesses no matter what stage they are at.
Congratulations again to the entire team at Bulmers, it was great to see what you’ve done for myself, and I wish you the best of luck for the future.”
Joining Leo Varadkar and colleagues from the Bulmers site in Clonmel to officially open the project, C&C Group CEO, David Forde, commented:
“I am delighted to welcome Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar to celebrate the official opening our Bulmers Sustainability Project, an ambition our colleagues here in Clonmel have worked incredibly hard to deliver and one we are immensely proud of. This initiative forms part of our broader C&C Group ESG strategy and demonstrates our commitment to be a carbon‐neutral business by 2050 and deliver to a better world.”
For more information on C&C Group’s ESG strategy please click here.