A century old family bakery business has demonstrated the difference that the will to be more sustainable can achieve.

Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses has been announced as the winner of the Environment and Energy Management Award at NAB Agribusiness Awards for Excellence for demonstrating that sound fiscal management and strategies for protecting the environment, can work together successfully in business.

The manufacturing, retail and franchising company won the title for its food manufacturing plant in Melbourne and its demonstrated commitment to a running a sustainable operation, to the benefit of business and the community.

Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses co-director, Steven Plarre, said the award confirmed that his company’s commitment to greener practices ‘made sense’ delivering major savings for the business as well as helping the environment.

“Who would have thought that an energy intensive business like a bakery could find a way to go green—and be successful at it?” he said.

“Given the financial and environmental benefits, our decision to bake our products within a sustainability framework was a no brainer. We made a decision to do business in a way that benefited our business, our customers and, ultimately, the world in which we all live.”

Plarre said that harnessing the waste heat from the operation’s refrigeration systems, redistributing heat recovered from freshly baked products, employing hybrid vehicle technologies and offsetting the remaining emissions via tree planting, it had reduced its carbon footprint by more than 5,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

“And our savings in electricity alone paid for our investment in the very first year,” Plarre said.