Exclusive: Palsgaard sets major 2025 environmental performance targets as it expands its ranges
Emulsifier specialist Palsgaard has revealed its plans to become CO2 neutral by 2025, as the business delivers new solutions for the confectionery sector at this year’s World Confectionery Conference, writes Neill Barston.
Coinciding with its appearance at our debut virtual event, the Danish company – which is also launching a major mould optimising system has delivered its latesat 2020 corporate social responsibility report.
As CEO Jakob Thøisen explained to Confectionery Production, the business has strived to deliver on core targets surrounding its environmental performance, which was underlined by its work in 2018 to become carbon neutral.
But as he added, there are a number of significant areas that the company is continuing to make progress on, with its latest CSR report identifying major areas of focus. These include its ongoing responsible sourcing programme for its raw ingredients, as well as its well established anti-corruption policies that conform to broader human rights principles that the company is aiming to help set the benchmark for with wider industry standards.
On its goal for becoming carbon neutral, Thøisen said: “We were hugely proud to achieve carbon-neutral production in 2018, but that was only the beginning of our journey. Since then, we’ve announced plans to double our production capacity in Denmark without affecting our CO2-neutrality status, and we’ve embarked on a number of new projects to achieve this. Plans for our own biogas plant have now been approved and we’re expecting it to be operational in early 2022. We’ve also started planting 118 hectares of forests, and we’re creating our own solar panel park, which will provide huge amounts of electricity – equivalent to the amount used by more than 15,000 households,” explained the CEO, who believed that it was vitally important for the company to take a strong stance on energy and the environment.
Reflecting on the broader CSR report, in his report welcome, he noted that the pandemic had made the business, and wider world more aware of several important factors.
He added: “Firstly, how we are all globally interconnected and reliant upon one another. We have learnt that our own actions can and do affect both those in our immediate communities, but also those thousands of miles away.
“Secondly, the health and wellbeing of our families and colleagues is absolutely paramount to a well-functioning business and the worldwide economy as a whole. This has never been more apparent than during this pandemic. The aforementioned aspects of the pandemic have helped to confirm our belief that Palsgaard’s commitment to decarbonising our energy usage and continuing to support and lobby for sustainable farming practises for our raw materials is both the right thing morally, but also economically.” – Register to see Palsgaard’s World Confectionery Conference presentation here.
