Nõo Meat Factory, the largest domestic capital-based meat industry, will transition to production that is completely based on green energy as part of their substantial environmental and investment programme.
“Transitioning to 100% green energy production and receiving the respective green certificate was only one part of our targeted environmental policy,” notes Chair of the Supervisory Board Simmo Kruustük. “We started from the packaging – we minimised the amount of plastic, began to use environmentally friendly paints and transport packaging; now our focus is green energy. We are taking huge steps towards our goal every day.
The environmental management system embedded in Nõo Meat Factory focuses not only on economic efficacy but also on minimising the environmental impact for all of our large investments and encourages all employees to notice work-related environmental impacts. Unfortunately, many influential companies are slow to take action to achieve sustainable objectives and don’t make large changes unless it is required by law. We have tried to act faster.”
Among others, Nõo Meat Factory began to use residual heat left over from production to heat the rooms and to use environmentally friendly paints and raw materials, which come from responsibly managed forests or are recycled, on the wrappers around the packaging. Salespersons’ cars have been replaced with gas-powered cars, as a result of which the amount of CO2 emissions decreased by half, or 21 tonnes.
Additionally, Nõo Meat Factory replaced the film of the packaging, decreasing the need for plastic by around 20%. They also renewed the system for returning containers: now, empty boxes can be stored inside one another and it is no longer necessary for containers to be returned separately from every client for cleaning purposes, thus it significantly decreases the driving mileage when transporting empty containers. Nõo Meat Factory uses reusable transport packaging, which helps extensively avoid packaging waste. Circular economy also concerns export. Last year, Nõo Meat Factory was awarded a Sustainable Company Certificate because the industry uses reusable and sustainable pallets for exporting goods in cooperation with CHEP Estonia.
Nõo Meat Factory has minimised their communication on paper and uses smart solutions instead – the use of paper was decreased by up to 25% by departments.
Nõo Meat Factory is also a nominee for the Environmental Award for Business. However, they are planning to develop the paper-free work process even further, replace light fuels with more sustainable gas heating for water heating by the end of the year, replace freon with a more environmentally friendly CO2 in refrigerant circuits and enhance residual heat recovery systems. Nõo Meat Factory is constantly decreasing the amount of plastic used and they are replacing single-use packaging with reusable packages for products intended for immediate consumption.
Nõo Meat Factory is the largest domestic capital-based meat industry, which has invested 400,000 euros in sustainable initiatives in two years. “A simple example: just the fact that our employees started to use gas-powered cars decreased our use of fuel by half,” Kruustük states. “Sustainable and local food production is a strategically crucial field and we are continuing to look for ways to make it more sustainable.”
Nõo Meat Factory is the largest domestic capital-based meat industry whose selection includes over 400 award-winning meat products. Our neighbours’ dining tables are also full of Nõo products – one-quarter of the products are exported to Latvia and Lithuania. Nõo Meat Factory has 200 employees, which makes it one of the biggest employers in South Estonia.
Additional information:
Simmo Kruustük
Nõo Meat Factory’s Chair of the Supervisory Board
Tel: +372 51 68 103
E-mail:
