TAMWORTH - Kimberly-Clark has opened a new onshore wind farm in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, a significant milestone in the company’s target of reducing its carbon footprint and making progress towards its goal of using 100% renewable energy by 2030.
This £75 million wind farm is expected to supply approximately 80% of Kimberly-Clark’s electrical power needs in the UK.
The 12 turbine site has a capacity of 50MW and is the largest wind asset owned by Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT).
Kimberly-Clark has a Power Purchase Agreement with ORIT for the energy generated by the wind farm ensuring it can secure a sustainable source of energy for its operations.
In addition to providing renewable energy, the wind farm is expected to bring investment to the local community. Through a Community Benefit Fund, over £200,000 will be distributed between South Lanarkshire Council Renewable Energy Fund, Coalburn Community Council, and Lesmahagow Community Council in the first year of operation. This amount will increase each year in line with the Retail Price Index for the next 30 years.
Kimberly-Clark UK has set a goal to use 100% renewable energy by 2030. The opening of the Cumberhead wind farm is a significant step towards achieving this goal.
By 2025, Kimberly-Clark's UK and Ireland total operational emissions (scope 1 and 2) are expected to be reduced by up to 85% from the 2015 baseline, ensuring the company is on track to meet its sustainability targets.
Craig Bowman, general manager, Kimberly-Clark Professional UK & Ireland said: "It is through responsible and innovative business partnerships and investments in new technology like this agreement with ORIT that enables us to make significant changes in this decisive decade and reach our decarbonisation goals."
"We adopt a life cycle approach to sustainability, starting by designing products to reduce consumption, reducing the use of natural resources and diverting our manufacturing waste from landfill. This enables us to provide customers with high performance products and systems that help them reduce usage and waste. By reducing energy use (scope 1) and prioritising and using renewable energy in our operations (scope 2) we are reducing the carbon impact of our products (customer scope 3 emissions)."
The green power will be used by Kimberly-Clark's manufacturing facilities across the UK, making up almost 80% of the electricity needs for its Barrow, Flint and Northfleet manufacturing facilities. At the Flint site, over 185 million Scott toilet rolls and around 30 million rolls of WypAll wipers are manufactured annually for the B2B market in UK and Europe, alongside household staples including nearly 1 billion Andrex toilet rolls and over 150 million boxes of Kleenex tissues.
Oriol Margo, sustainability leader, Kimberly-Clark EMEA said: "We are feeling an immense amount of pride cutting the ribbon on this project today with Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust. 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."
