During the meeting “Sustainability: the name of the game”, organized as part of the # Las500 edition of Expansión, Javier González, Bimbo’s Deputy General Director, shared that the group will achieve high levels of energy efficiency before the end of 2025.
Among its sustainability indicators, González Franco pointed out that the group’s total energy consumption, in the 33 countries in which it operates, will come from renewable sources in the next four years … or sooner.
“In Mexico, 80% of our electricity consumption already comes from renewable energies and by the end of 2021, 100% of that consumption in Canada will be from alternative energies. The United States is already 100% renewable ”, explained Grupo Bimbo’s deputy general director.
Roberto Mercadé, president of Coca Cola in Mexico, and Gonzalo Robina, general director of Fibra UNO, also participated in the meeting. All the executives pointed out the vital and urgent importance of managing the resources and products of the companies from a sustainability approach, understood as the protection and care of the environment.
Feed a better world
Confinement due to the covid-19 pandemic represented a challenge for all companies. However, according to Grupo Bimbo’s deputy general director, for the company the situation only strengthened its vision.
Bimbo manages the sustainability of its company from different fronts. One of them is the establishment of renewable sources to supply the electricity consumption of the company. But another innovation is present in the electric vehicles that the group itself created to turn them into delivery units.
Javier González explained that these units were designed in Bimbo, to solve their mobility needs and adequate space for handling their products: “Today, around 1,000 of these units circulate in the country, among the smallest for supplying points of sale , up to those of intermediate size. I believe that by the end of this year it will be ready. This as part of our internal effort to achieve energy efficiency “, explained the panelist.
Regenerative agriculture
Another of the group’s initiatives goes to the beginning of its supply chain: the field. In Mexico, the manager continued, they have in an experimental phase 15,000 hectares of bread wheat and corn under regenerative agriculture schemes, that is, worked under systems that allow the regeneration of the sowing land. It is part of the sustainability concept designed by the group to be transmitted to its entire value chain.
Criteria for the maximum use of water are also included in this aspect, as well as the reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. “It is a misunderstanding to think that sustainability is expensive. Rather, it must be considered that sustainability implies investments that will reduce costs in the future (…) In the end, we are all going to improve the quality of life on our planet and this implies reducing carbon and making better use of water , factors for which it is necessary to invest ”, indicated González.
This is a philosophy of work and operation at Bimbo. Its director also spoke of the importance of its comprehensive waste strategy. He exemplified some of his recycling exercises in his operations, such as the separation of waste that can serve as raw material for other companies, such is the case of plastics, wood, cardboard, etc.
“We are also working against food waste (…) in packaged products, waste in the supply chain and even in the value chain can be more controlled, so that the food reaches its final destination, what people are ”, he contributed.
In the Metropolitan CEDIS, recently inaugurated by Bimbo in the demarcation of Azcapotzalco in Mexico City, there is a solar roof that supports all the electricity consumption of that unit. There is also a rainwater harvesting system for reuse. Everything so that each aspect is consistent and congruent with a sustainable agenda that is already an organizational culture.
