Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses, a Melbourne-based family-owned business, has built one of the country’s most environmentally sustainable bakeries at Keilor Park, which officially opened last Monday, 16th November.
The 5000 square-metre facility is the result of 10 years of research, conducted both in Australia and overseas.
Its list of environmentally-friendly features are extensive and include:
• The use of the heat recovered from freshly-baked products, using both exhaust fans and the heat taken from special cooling tunnels, to heat the main production area in winter, or when required.
• Hot water generation for cake production (about 8000L/day) generated by heat exchangers using a heat-recovery system from the refrigeration plant.
• Rain water toilet flushing for office and staff facilities.
• Solar-heated hot water for staff and office.
• High efficiency air-conditioning for offices, staff amenities and climate controlled production areas involving outside air optimisation to reduce power consumption.
• Installation of a fully-integrated SCADA energy monitoring system providing real time monitoring of all energy and water consumption, both individually and collectively, to allow full monitoring of all energy consumption of electricity and gas, water and carbon dioxide emissions.
• Installation of rainwater tanks for irrigation and vehicle washing.
The company’s co-director Ralph Plarre said it wanted to maximise environmental technology in the bakery while ensuring the quality of the products.
“We wanted to embrace the latest technology, not only in baking equipment, but in information technology, transport and energy monitoring,” he said.
“And we wanted to minimise our environmental footprint, using the most sustainable growth strategy possible.”
The new facility will produce more than 15,000 pastries, cakes and pies each day for delivery to Ferguson Plarre Bakehouse’s 35 shops around Melbourne.