innocent - the blender
A major project to deliver the world’s most sustainable healthy drinks factory
With a clear vision of what it wanted to achieve, innocent was focussed on creating a new factory in line with its values and purpose. Working in partnership with Integrated Food Projects, sustainability was placed at the heart of every decision that was made in the design, build and operation of the blender.
Located in the Port of Rotterdam’s new Food Hub, the blender is a £200 million plant that will produce up to 300 million litres of healthy drinks every year.
Since day one of our involvement in the blender, the objective has always been clear – design and build a drinks factory that supports a supply chain that can be entirely carbon neutral by 2025.
Our team undertook an initial evaluation process which not only provided a strong business case for the blender, but also, aided by innocent having a clear sense of its values, the evaluation was also assessed against environmental credentials and innocent’s key principles.
In order to achieve carbon neutrality, energy consumption and efficiency had to be considered in every decision that was made. Innovative solutions such as purposely splitting thermal demands to reduce steam usage, and recycling waste heat from the cooling and refrigeration process both proved extremely successful. This enables the blender to integrate an all-electric energy strategy, removing the need for fossil fuels and aiming for all energy requirements to be produced onsite through renewable sources.
Further to this, a focus on the reduction of water usage within the factory led to the implementation of a revolutionary line cleaning technology called FluiVac, which helps save an estimated 81,000 litres of water every single day.
The sustainability standards implemented within the blender means innocent is targeting both BREEAM and WELL certifications, you can read the full report here. This is in addition to positively contributing towards its B Corp certification.
The partnership between IFP and innocent is a leading example of how a holistic approach to integrating sustainability within factory design can create positive change in the food and drink manufacturing sector.
Andy Joynson, chief blender at innocent:
“The team at Integrated Food Projects has been integral to the success of the project. Alongside engineering expertise, they brought their vast experience of delivering sustainable factories to help determine where the factory should be built, the methods and equipment used and, insights on sustainable operations.”