Environmental management

All of the electricity we use for our daily operations comes from hydroelectric power and helps us to further expand our “11er Climate Initiative”. By using electricity from hydroelectric power, we avoid around 6,500 ton of CO₂ compared to the German electricity fuel mix.

By building and expanding our own PV systems on the roofs of our production and deep-freeze warehouses, we are able to use the power of the sun effectively. Whenever the sun is at its strongest, we need a lot of energy to freeze our 11 potato specialities.

Thus, since 2021, we have been using the solar energy gained and independently cover part of the energy demand for deep-freezing.

New plant saves up to 5,500 tons of CO₂ every year

Through the commissioning of the new, higher-capacity biogas plant in 2017, we reached a new milestone in terms of sustainability and can now save up to 5,500 tons of CO2 every year. All of our production residues are converted into biogas of a fuel quality in the new plant. This fuel is in turn used in the daily transport of our potatoes. Click here to learn more about our energy cycle.

Just how does a biogas plant work?

Biomass such as potato peelings is decomposed by an anaerobic process, i.e. without oxygen, in a biogas plant. Adding microorganisms starts a fermentation process that in turn produces the biogas. This means that we can not only avoid CO2 but also contribute to offering alternative sources of energy and help to improve environmental protection.

We need water to produce our 11er potato specialities. With our own wastewater treatment plant, we can recycle the large volumes of water that are used in our production process. At the same time, we can so reduce our CO2 emissions. We are convinced that water-saving and energy-efficient plants have to be used, above all in production, if we want to make a lasting contribution to climate protection.

A lot of energy is needed in the production of deep-frozen potato specialities, to heat up process water, for example. Furthermore, a great deal of heat is also generated by various production processes such as deep-frying, steam peeling or blanching.

A heat recovery system lets us use this waste heat in our own production. This is as lasting benefit for us because it lets us avoid unnecessary CO2 emissions. The waste heat generated in our heat recovery plant is then used to heat up approx. 70,000 litres of water for production in our company every single day.