Mars Begins Powering All UK Operations With Scottish Wind Farm

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A new partnership between the UK arm of Mars and energy company Eneco UK will see all Mars operations in the UK powered by the new Moy Wind Farm in Scotland.

Mars-2Mars UK made the announcement this week, revealing that it had signed a deal with Eneco UK to acquire the electricity generated by the Moy Wind Farm to power its MARS bars, WHISKAS cat food, EXTRA gum, and UNCLE BEN’S rice productions in the UK. The 20 turbine wind farm, located just south of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands, will generate the equivalent electricity necessary to power all 12 of Mars UK’s sites.

This pushes Mars one step closer towards its goal of decreasing its dependency on fossil fuels and “reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.”

“As a fourth generation business, we’re committed to ensuring our business and the communities in which we work are healthy and vibrant for generations to come,” Mars said in a statement. “We achieved our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from our operations by 25% in 2015, and continue to work towards eliminating them entirely.”

“The UK has been home to Mars for 84 years,” said Barry Parkin, Chief Sustainability and Health & Wellbeing Officer at Mars, who was onsite at Moy for the official launch of the wind farm.

“We’re proud the brands that we make here will now be manufactured using renewable electricity, and that we are reducing our carbon footprint in the UK and around the world. As with our wind farm in Lamesa, Texas, Moy will contribute significantly to our effort to eliminate fossil fuel energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from our global operations by 2040 as part of our ‘Sustainable in a Generation’ program. The Moy Wind Farm is part of our innovative and long-term approach to achieving our goal to be a successful and sustainable business for generations to come.”

The Moy Wind Farm was developed by Carbon Free Developments Limited, with investment help from Eneco — a company which is one of the largest producers and suppliers of natural gas, electricity, and heat in the Netherlands. The Moy Wind Farm has a capacity of 60 MW, and will generate an annual average of 125,000 MWh — enough electricity to power 34,000 average UK households, or as Mars added, enough to fill 166 Olympic-size swimming pools with Maltesers.

Mars-1

Mars is also a member of the RE100 campaign, launched at Climate Week NYC in 2014, in which it set a target to be powered completely by renewables by 2040.

“This is a significant investment that makes business sense and offers a welcome boost for UK renewables,” said Emily Farnworth, RE100 Campaign Director. “Being 100% renewable in both the UK and the US is no small feat; Mars is clearly progressing against its 2040 goal for sourcing renewable electricity globally – setting an example to multinationals everywhere.

“We congratulate Mars on its huge success in slashing its greenhouse gas emissions. With 65% of the company’s emissions being produced along its supply chain, it’s important that Mars helps its suppliers switch to renewables too.”


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Joshua S Hill

I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

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