As one of Europe's largest manufacturers of dairy products, Pritchitts puts corporate social responsibility at the top of our agenda.

Food manufacturing and the environment are closely linked, so every step of the way Pritchitts looks at its environmental impact. Food manufacturing and sustainability is here to stay and Pritchitts employees are passionate about caring for the environment. At Pritchitts we realise that our processes, the materials and products we use can impact on the environment. That realisation has helped us to create an enviable environmental management system for which we have won numerous awards.

Caring for the Environment

Through its environmental policy, Pritchitts aims to be environmentally conscious and responsible. The policy states: 

"Pritchitts shall through the efforts of management and employees endeavour to care for the environment. Pritchitts recognises that good management includes all environmental matters and will ensure that environmental protection and the prevention of pollution form part of all decisions, policies and practices." 

Pritchitts work towards the following objectives:

• Minimise energy and raw material usage;
• Employ renewable energies where possible;
• Reduce waste produced, including indirect waste, to the lowest possible level;
• Avoid air, land or water pollution;
• Use suppliers with a proven environmentally friendly history;
• Improve the working environment for employees;
• Minimise environmental impact of any environmental aspects arising from the activities of Pritchitts. (This includes impact on local community and residents);
• Observe and where possible exceed environmental regulatory standards, employ best practice and maintain a programme of continual improvement;
• Implement an environmental awareness and best practice programme within the internal training schedule;
• Foster openness, dialogue and discussion with employees, customers, suppliers, contractors and all interested parties regarding the environmental performance and the environmental objectives and targets of Pritchitts.

To download a copy of the Pritchitts environmental policy, click here

Carbon emissions and dairy manufacturing

Pritchitts was the first dairy company in the North of Ireland to install natural gas fired steam raising boilers.  They dramatically reduced the amount of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere.

Emissions have reduced by: (see graph)

• Carbon dioxide 12,000 tonnes per year
• Sulphur dioxide 375 tonnes per year

Pritchitts is working with the Carbon Trust's Carbon Management programme, which provides commercially viable solutions to help UK businesses and the public sector cut carbon, energy and costs.

Pritchitts has installed a combined heat and power plant to produce electricity on site from gas and use the subsequent waste heat to heat the hot wat er system on site. This has reduced the load placed on the local electricity grid and the amount of electricity used on site. Prichitts have annually reviewed energy plan and monitor energy use on a daily basis.

To download a copy of the Pritchitts energy policy, click here

Working principles of the 3 R's

Pritchitts aims to reduce, reuse and recycle all wastes produced on site and emp loys a hierarchy of waste management.  

Waste reduction opportunities are continually addressed throughout the site's operations. We work closely with all packaging and raw material suppliers to reduce the volume of associated packaging that arrives on site.

We have achieved 100% compliance with allowed levels for discharge of treated effluent.

Safety is a priority at all our sites. All chemicals and any substances potentially hazardous to the environment are securely stored to ensure that they are not accidentally released into the environment. 

An environmental auditing programme has been implemented to ensure suppliers and waste contractors meet Pritchitts' environmental standards. Regular reviews ensure legislative compliance and continual improvement. 

The Killeshandra site holds an Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Licence (IPPC), which was issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in March 2008. This ensures that the very highest environment regulations are adhered to. 

To download a copy of Pritchitts waste minimisation policy, click here 

It is important that our suppliers can demonstrate that they take the environment seriously and continue to drive improvements in their environmental performance.

Our ethical/environmental procurement policy ensures that we only deal with suppliers with proven track records who can demonstrate their ethical/environmental credentials. 

Many of the products we produce are packed in cartons. There are environmental issues involved in packaging, but we believe that our cartons have strong environmental credentials. The carton has a unique environmental attribute: it is the only beverage package commonly found to be made mainly from a renewable material, wood.

But to take this further, our ultimate goal is for our carton supplier to ensure that all the wood fibre in our liquid packaging board comes from forests independently certified as managed in accordance with the principles of sustainable forest management.

Cartons are extremely resource efficient. The unique make up of the carton means that not only is it able to protect the contents from light, which can harm valuable vitamins and minerals in the product, but it uses the minimum amount of materials to make the package. Ensuring this resource efficiency is essential and is a continual process. For example, the polyethylene liner in cartons has been reduced by up to 30% in the past two years.

Cartons are also very transport efficient. As the packaging material is delivered to our filling sites in reel format, just one truck can transport enough packaging material for nearly a million 1 litre cartons. It takes up to 50 trucks to deliver a million formed bottles of the same size.

Cartons are a low carbon packaging choice

In environmental studies across the world, cartons a re shown over and over again to be a low carbon choice. One reason for this is due to the fact that they are made mainly from a natural, renewable resource - wood. As trees lock up carbon when they grow, this means t hat our car ton packages have a lower carbon footprint.  

To find out more, please visit www.tetrapak.com/climate. 

Long-life cartons have a special quality. They enable products to be stored for up to 9 months and not only do they prot ect the product, they save the carbon emissions associated with refrigeration.

Cart ons are recyclable

Cartons are al ready being collected for recycling across most of the UK and Ireland.  

To find out mo re about carton recycling, where cartons are collected or where you can recy cle your cartons, please visit

http://www.tetrapaksustainability.co.uk/ for the UK

or http://www.recycletogether.ie/ for Ireland.

Don't forget - you can put the whole carton in for recycling, cap and all. Just wash and then squash them before you put them in the bin.

For a copy of Pritchitts ethical and environmental procurement policy, click here.