Food firm receives award for sustainability from the King

A frozen food supplier which is one of Lynn’s biggest firms has received a coveted award for sustainability from the King.

Greenyard Frozen UK, which is the largest supplier of British-grown produce to the UK frozen market, took first place in the 2023 Sustainable Development category of the King’s Awards for Enterprise.

Greenyard Frozen’s operations director Neil Winner visited Buckingham Palace to celebrate the award in June and met King Charles.

The company’s Hardwick site features a biological water treatment plant, incorporating anaerobic digestion technologies, treating wastewater produced during crop processing.

Officials say that the plant has reduced its water chemical oxygen demand levels by 97% in seven years.

Biogas is generated as a by-product, which is captured and stored within a biogas dome to supply a combined heat and power generator, which itself produces 3% of site electricity, with the by-product heat also used to heat water.

Mr Winner said: “After 39 years of working with the business, the importance and impact of this award cannot be understated.

“It is without doubt a deserved reward for a dedicated team at Greenyard, after many years of tireless work in achieving incredible progress on a topic upon which our core values are based.

“We will continue to develop the future roadmap for Greenyard, ensuring we are successful in the challenging drive of reducing our impact on the environment and realise the bright future which lies ahead within an ecologically focused world.”

Officials say that sustainability has been “embedded in the core of Greenyard” since Hein Deprez founded it in 1983.

Brendan Legrove leads Greenyard Frozen UK and has a sustainability and environmental team to monitor the company’s ecological impact and ensure that all future investment projects are as environmentally conscious as possible.

“Our daily energy, carbon footprint and water usages are continually measured to guarantee we stay on track to meet our 2025 and 2030 sustainability goals,” a spokesperson said.

“Since 2015 our direct carbon footprint has seen a 40% decrease, a trend which we wish to continue.

“Several sources of on-site energy generation contribute to this reduction; solar panels cover our cold store roofs and annually produce an average of 2.5 million kWh (kilowatt hours), approximately 5% of our total site usage.”