Branston Ltd, the UK’s leading supplier of potatoes, has reaffirmed its commitment to environmental best practice by promoting Vidyanath Gururajan (Vee) to the role of Projects Director and awarding him a place on the company’s Executive Board.

Vee, 30, joined Branston in 2005 as a Development Engineer before becoming Group Head of Projects and Development, with responsibility for leading the company through the process of achieving the Carbon Trust Standard and the building of the company’s new £3.5m Prepared Foods Factory.

Most recently, Vee was instrumental in securing a £568,000 grant from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) to enable Branston to build a combined heat and power plant which will use anaerobic digestion to turn waste potatoes into energy, reducing the company’s impact on the environment and reliance on fossil fuels.

As well as continuing to lead Branston’s large capital projects and continuous improvement initiatives, Vee’s new role also sees him shaping and delivering the company’s environmental strategy.

“Branston is proud of the lead it has taken in driving environmental improvements in recent years including receiving ISO 14001 accreditation at all sites and being awarded the Carbon Trust Standard. We recognise the significant contribution that Vee has made to these achievements and we’re delighted to welcome him onto the Executive Board,” said Graeme Beattie, Managing Director. “It is clear that there are still massive challenges ahead of us and the carbon reduction and climate change agenda will become central to the success of any business. This appointment demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that Branston continues to lead the way towards a sustainable future for the potato industry.”

Commenting on the promotion Vee added: “I am delighted to be joining the Executive Board. It shows that Branston is committed to building an environmentally-sustainable business and I am very much looking forward to developing the strategy that the business has put in place. Protecting the environment and reducing carbon emissions are two of the biggest issues faced by businesses today and at Branston we’re doing everything we can to minimise our impact and maximise our efficiencies through environmental best practice. The actions we have taken to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard and the initiatives we are taking to retain it are a clear indication of this.”

Last year Branston became the first business in the food and agriculture sector to receive the Carbon Trust Standard. This was in recognition of its environmental initiatives, which resulted in a reduction in the company’s carbon intensity over a three year period, despite considerable business growth. At the time, Branston was one of just 26 companies to be awarded the standard and it has since been joined by over 150 other companies from a wide range of industry sectors.

Branston is the only potato supplier to hold both the Carbon Trust Standard and ISO 14001 accreditation and its commitment to environmental best practice has been evident for some time. The company appointed an Environmental and Utilities manager two years ago and each of its three sites has its own comprehensive Environmental Management System.

Vee’s involvement was key to making Branston’s new Prepared Foods factory one of the most energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly in the UK. He investigated and evaluated a wide range of environmental technologies, selecting those that offered economies in terms of resource use and carbon emissions as well as long-term cost savings.

The 2,500m2 facility, which opened in July 2009 boasts a range of features to minimise environmental impacts. Water for the factory comes from its own bore hole and the heating system is fuelled by a biomass boiler which will utilise the 20 tonnes of waste potato boxes and pallets that Branston currently disposes of each year. Branston’s aim is for to the factory to become completely independent of all external utilities within a year.

“We’ve set a very high standard in terms of our environmental record,” says Vee. “My role at Branston as Projects Director is to ensure we raise the bar even further over the coming years. For us it’s about balancing the long term needs of the business with environmental concerns and developing a virtuous circle where low carbon equals low cost. It’s a big challenge, but with Board level commitment and business-wide environmental management systems in place we have a very good start.”

-ENDS-

Issued on behalf of Branston Ltd by Lava. For further information contact Matt at Lava on 01522 842 800 / matt@lavapr.co.uk

The following image is available as a high-res download from http://gallery.me.com/lavapr#100456

To view all of Lava’s recent press releases or to sign up to receive them via RSS please visit http://www.lavapr.co.uk/press-releases or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lavapr