Household products maker Kimberly-Clark has announced that it will source around 80% of its electricity needs in the UK from a newly-opened wind farm.
The £75 million wind farm in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, was opened by Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT), a company managed by Octopus Energy Generation.
Kimberly-Clark, which owns the Andrex, Kleenex and Huggies brands, has a Power Purchase Agreement for the energy generated.
'A Key Priority'
“Energy transformation is a key priority for us if we are going to deliver on our ambition to be using 100% renewable energy by 2030 in the UK and Ireland," commented Dan Howell, vice president and managing director at Kimberly-Clark UK & Ireland.
"When people ask what ‘fully decarbonising our operations’ looks like in practice, showing them a brand new 12-turbine wind farm is a pretty powerful answer.”
The facility will supply the company with around 160,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable energy every year, reducing its emissions by 55,625 MTCO2e per year, which is the equivalent of taking more than 38,000 passenger vehicles off the road.
The power generated by the wind farm will be used by Kimberly-Clark's Barrow, Flint and Northfleet manufacturing facilities, which between them produce nearly one billion Andrex toilet rolls, 150 million boxes of Kleenex tissues and some 136 million packs of Huggies baby wipes, among other personal care products.
'Ambitious Goal'
“We are feeling an immense amount of pride cutting the ribbon on this project today with Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust," added Oriol Margo, sustainability leader, Kimberly-Clark EMEA.
"Together, as we close in on our ambitious goal to move solely to renewable energy, we continue to invest in the future of the planet, our business and the FMCG industry as a whole, and hope to encourage other organisations, big and small, to do the same along the way.”
This project is part of Kimberly-Clark UK & Ireland’s wider sustainability strategy and its ambition to move to 100% renewable energy by 2030.
