CENTURY PACIFIC Food, Inc. (CNPF) has lessened the freshwater consumption of its tuna manufacturing facilities by 30% in 2020 after designing a new thawing method.
In a regulatory filing on Monday, the listed company said the method reduced by half the water used by its manufacturing plant in thawing frozen tuna.
According to CNPF, its General Santos-based manufacturing plant which produces its Century Tuna brand has consumed a total of 2.2 billion liters of water in 2019 — with around 30% used for thawing frozen tuna.
“The success of this initiative and other water reduction projects translated to the conservation of 660 million liters of water annually,” the disclosure said.
Teddy C. Kho, CNPF vice-president and general manager of tuna OEM business, said the effort to reduce its freshwater consumption is part of the company’s initiative to improve its natural resource efficiency.
“We know how precious water is, especially now when the country needs it more to combat the pandemic via health and hygiene practices,” Mr. Kho was quoted as saying.
“Our formula is simple: Reduce, Reheat, Reuse. We will continue to look for ways to continue our sustainability strategy and accelerate initiatives that contribute to protecting the environment,” he added.
Meanwhile, CNPF said it recently approved a 4.5-megawatt solar project in its General Santos manufacturing base as part of an initiative to lessen greenhouse gas emissions. Solar panels will be installed on the roofs of all the facilities in the area, which are estimated to be online by the middle of 2021.
The solar project will let the company source almost 15% of its total power requirements via renewable energy, and decrease emissions by 123,900 metric tons.
Further, CNPF will continue its 100% plastic neutral initiative through the partnership with Plastic Credit Exchange for plastic offsetting, together with the verification and certification of the said activity.
The initiative collects municipal waste equivalent to the tonnage of post-consumer plastic used by CNPF products and co-processes the plastic into energy instead of using coal.
“The company also expects its coconut subsidiary, Century Pacific Agricultural Ventures, Inc. (CPAVI), to be ‘carbon neutral’ by 2028 with the planting of 100,000 coconut seedlings annually, offsetting about 416,680 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next eight years,” the disclosure said.
On Monday, CNPF shares at the stock exchange fell 2.22% or 40 centavos to finish at P17.60 apiece. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
