Campbell Soup Company is entering a creative partnership with a biogas company where its waste will produce electricity to power a manufacturing plant where soups, sauces and beverages are made.
This first commercial biogas power plant in Ohio will help Campbell Soup keep 35-50% of its waste out of landfills by using it as a feedstock for electricity production instead. It will bring the company’s recycling rate to 95%, while providing 25% of the manufacturing plant’s power.
CH4 Biogas’s anaerobic digester will also take material from local food processors, waste recyclers and dairy farms. It’s across the street from Campbell’s plant on about seven acres.
Next door is a 60-acre, 9.8 MW solar system that also powers Campbell Soup’s plant with about 15% of its electricity.
For both the biogas and solar plants, rather than paying for the project upfront, Campbell signed a power purchase agreement to buy the energy the system generates at a fixed price for 20 years.
Campbell’s goal is to cut energy use 35% per ton of product produced and source 40% of the energy used by the company from renewable or alternative energy sources. Well-known brands that are owned by Campbell’s include "Pepperidge Farm," and "V8."
A Pepperidge Farm plant in Connecticut runs on a 1.2 MW fuel cell, which combined with an earlier, smaller installation, provides 70% of its power.
The company was named as one of 20 companies as a "Climate Leader" for its initiatives that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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