History in the baking - the Ferguson Plarre story

Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses is a company that proves when it comes to sustainability, you can have your cake and eat it too.

It has won awards not just for its cakes, buns and lamingtons, but for its achievements in sustainability as well – achievements that have helped the company save money through reduced costs.

Net Balance was there the night Ferguson Plarre won the Origin Gold Banksia Award. The submission that won the company the award drew heavily on a Net Balance study of greenhouse gas emissions and water use across the Ferguson Plarre supply, production and sales chain.

Net Balance has also developed an Environmental Management System for Ferguson Plarre which has a state of the art central baking facility at Keilor Park in Melbourne and around 50 retail bakehouses.

At the central baking facility, Ferguson Plarre harnesses heat from its refrigeration systems and redistributes heat recovered from freshly baked products. The company also uses a hybrid delivery vehicle and offsets carbon emissions it cannot eliminate.

All up, Ferguson Plarre has reduced its carbon footprint by over 5,000 tonnes of CO₂ each year. And savings on electricity and gas costs as a result meant the investment to achieve this paid for itself within a year.

As Steve Plarre, Ferguson Plarre’s CEO Operations says: ‘Who would have thought an energy intensive business like a bakery could find a way to be green?’

To learn more about Ferguson Plarre and their sustainability story, click here.