Local sites win awards in Fonterra's best site cup awards

Taranaki is now home to Fonterra's most sustainable site following the Oscars of Manufacturing, Fonterra's best site cup awards.

The awards recognise the commitment and dedication from the team in the area of in a variety of categories.

Whareroa picked up the hotly contested Sustainability Cup ahead of the 25 other Fonterra manufacturing sites throughout the country.

Whareroa is responsible for almost 20 per cent of Fonterra's dairy production in New Zealand. The site processes up to 13 million litres of milk a day at peak collected from 1500 Taranaki farms and produces enough dairy ingredients every week to fill more than three Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The site is a large employer, with more than 1000 staff.

Whareroa produces its own electricity, using a gas-fired co-generation plant. The plant produces 380 GWh of electricity per year, and more than 60 per cent of this feeds the national grid. Waste heat is used to run the site's milk processing plants.

It was the first site to implement more efficient manufacturing practices under Fonterra's Operational Excellence Programme – known as lean manufacturing. The site has achieved cost savings through improving its eco-efficiency, energy reduction, effluent losses and health and safety performance.

Whareroa wasn't the only Taranaki site to be recognised at this year's awards.

Kapuni won two awards – the Best Consumer and Foodservice Site and the People's Cup, while Eltham was also runner-up in the Best Consumer and Foodservice.