Sustainability

Growing responsibly – a key ingredient for future growth

At Tulip, we take our social and environmental responsibilities very seriously. We are committed to growing with the minimum amount of impact on the environment.

We have looked extensively at all areas of our operations to analyse and understand the effect we have on our colleagues, the environment and the wider community. Fully accountable, we clearly understand our role, and have a route plan for the improvements and changes that need to be implemented to meet the challenges of achieving our aim: to become a food industry beacon in corporate responsibility.

“Growing responsibly” has to be more than mere words; it has to be at the centre of what we do.

Our two overriding core aims are:

Environment

Taking responsibility for the impact we have on the environment.

People and Community

Creating an environment where our people are safe, valued and motivated. Being a good neighbour and having a positive impact on local communities.

In addition, we aim to continually improve in the following core areas:

Energy

Reduce our energy consumption by 15% by 2015. To help achieve our target, we are implementing monitoring and targeting software and meters at our sites to enable us to track energy consumption in detail.

Water

Reduce water use by 20% by 2015. Tulip has signed up to the sector-wide Federation House Commitment on water reduction. We are currently in the process of auditing our sites against best practice for water usage. Monitoring and targeting will again help us to identify the areas of highest impact for reduction.

Waste

Increase recycling rates and send zero waste to landfill by 2015. Our focus is on ensuring waste segregation on site, to enable us to source the best local waste solutions to avoid landfill waste. Greater segregation helps us to recycle a much larger proportion of our waste.

Packaging

We monitor our packaging use for both retail and transit packaging, and are committed to reducing our overall usage of packaging whilst increasing the recyclable content within it.

Transport

We are addressing our transport emissions by working with our own fleet and third party hauliers to embed the principles of the Food and Drink Federation's 10 point checklist for greener food transport.

Farming

We are committed to driving emissions down all the way back to the farm. To deliver this we have commenced a pilot project with our farming division, looking at all aspects of their operation to reduce the carbon footprint. The Eco-Pig project, introduced in March 2010 and set to run until December 2012, has the clear objective of reducing our agricultural carbon footprint by 6%. The project looks at all aspects of the impact of farming but pays particular attention to utilisation of feed, achieving a higher number of pigs per litter and the management of slurry.

Embedding ‘Growing Responsibly’

Making sustainability part of everyday business.  We have set ourselves ambitious targets to achieve in the short term, but recognise that this is only the start of the journey. In order to embed our corporate responsibility strategy 'Growing Responsibly', we will need to ensure that sustainability is part of our everyday business.

The Future

The science and standards of corporate responsibility are constantly evolving. Tulip has aligned itself to key guiding partners to ensure that we achieve our aim of leading the food industry.

Tulip Environmental Policy Statement

Click on the link below to download a copy of our Environmental Policy statement.