East Yorkshire chicken business commissions carbon footprint benchmarking software

A Yorkshire Wolds poultry company has hired the former head of compliance and sustainability at Cranswick to help it calculate its carbon footprint.

Middleton on the Wolds-based Soanes Poultry commissioned Garry Warhurst from Warhurst Associates to build a bespoke database to calculate the factory's emissions.

"After being approached by Soanes Poultry to develop a user friendly system for them to calculate their carbon footprint, I developed a database which works to Greenhouse Gas Protocols and covers Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions," said Mr Warhurst.

"I used my sustainability, governance, and IT development skills to develop this system which automatically calculates the business's carbon footprint and is a great tool for any small to medium business to keep track of their emissions."

Although Soanes Poultry is not a PLC and has no legal obligation to measure or report its emissions, MD Ben Lee commissioned Mr. Warhurst because he wanted a baseline emissions figure against which to measure future savings.

Mr. Lee said: "We're working hard to reduce our carbon emissions to safeguard the business for future generations of the Soanes family. Our sustainability initiatives include biomass boilers, solar and wind turbines on the farm, a heat recovery system and energy efficient refrigeration systems in the factory and an £850,000 investment in 1648 solar panels to power the factory that will go live shortly.

"We look forward to seeing Garry's baseline figure reduce as the impact of the solar array and other environmental initiatives kick in."

Soanes Poultry was founded by Tom Soanes and has been rearing and preparing chicken since 1947. It sells its Yorkshire-reared chicken to butchers and independent retailers throughout Yorkshire and to wholesalers and catering butchers nationwide.

Photo: Garry Warhurst and Ben Lee