With energy costs rising, fuel insecurity becoming a real concern and climate change at the front of everyone’s minds, here is an update on what we are doing at Bridge Cheese to ensure we are working sustainably, for the benefit of both our business and the environment.
Who we are
Bridge Cheese is a Telford-based company supplying cheese and dairy products to the food manufacturing, wholesale and food service sectors. Established just five years ago, our business is expanding rapidly thanks, in part, to high demand for pizza cheese during the Covid pandemic.
To keep pace with a burgeoning order book, we have recently extended our site to double our production capacity and add more warehouse space. With business growth finally steady, we were able to use 2023 to take stock and look objectively at where we could improve business operations. One of our top priorities was the sustainability plan.
Working with BNZ
Bridge Cheese approached Business Net Zero (BNZ) after hearing consultant Sue Burnell speak at a Marches Growth Hub event about calculating CO2 emissions. Before we started to work together, Sue was keen to understand whether it was the right time for us to introduce sustainability measures as that requires business readiness and a capacity to cope with the changes needed.
Sue said: “I went to meet directors Michael and Martin to ensure they knew what would be expected. There is no sustainability roadmap for small businesses; the journey requires an in-depth understanding of every aspect of business waste and how to tackle it, followed by a commitment to taking modest steps to improve. It’s important that the sustainability agenda moves at a pace that is right for the business, starting slow and building momentum.”
Our next step was to find someone in the company who could improve our in-house capabilities and drive sustainability from within.
Step forward Mary Lo, Bridge Cheese’s business administrator who has taken on the role of sustainability champion.
Something about Mary
Mary completed a half-day BNZ course to improve her understanding of sustainability, its importance and how it could be put into practice within our business. Sue then worked with Mary and the directors to draw up a three-month action plan to get Mary started on tackling some of our sustainability priorities – particularly our energy use.
Since opening the extended Telford site in 2022, Bridge Cheese’s overheads have been significantly higher, so Mary’s first task was to look at electricity use and to research industry and regional networks to find further support and best practice advice.
Mary is being supported throughout the process by BNZ with face-to-face meetings, emails and phone calls. This makes sure she doesn’t become overwhelmed by the task and allows her to ask questions or for help when she needs.
Where we are
Bridge Cheese managing director Michael Harte said: “We are only just at the beginning of our sustainability journey but having Sue there to guide us has been invaluable. We didn’t know where to start and we didn’t have the capabilities in-house, so it felt like a huge undertaking.
“But with Sue’s support, Mary is quickly becoming our sustainability champion, providing valuable insight into how we can shape our business operations in the future to be more agile, less wasteful and kinder to the planet. From the scope we’ve agreed, we can see benefits both to the business and to our green credentials, such as lowering our energy costs by improving efficiency, and we are excited to see where the journey takes us.”
