Enviro-Stewards & Tim Hortons: Waste discharge reduction

The challenge: Waste discharge to sewer by Tim Hortons’ Fruition Fruit & Fills plant.

A conventional approach would have addressed the environmental concern while imposing economic ($1,000,000 capital) and social burdens (loss of commodity ingredients).

Using a preventative approach, the facility reduced the loading to sewer by 80%, waste sent to landfill by 70% and greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.  The conservation measures are saving the facility about $490,000/yr with a 5 month payback (260% Return on investment).

Each year, the measures save:

• enough electricity to power 75 homes,
• enough natural gas to heat 59 homes,
• enough waste to fill 43 garbage trucks, and
• enough water to fill 15 Olympic sized swimming pools.

The facility shared a portion of the savings with its employees and sponsored the construction of 40 BioSand Filters, which are purifying 800,000 L/yr of drinking water and avoiding 120 tonnes/yr of GHG emissions in South Sudan, Africa.

Tim Hortons’ director of manufacturing at the time visited South Sudan with Enviro-Stewards’ President to meet the local team constructing the sustainable drinking water purification systems as well as recipients of the BioSand filters.

Fruition Fruit & Fills is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tim Hortons Incorporated. It manufactures custom developed fruit fillings, pastry fillings, icings, toppings and variegates for the bakery, dairy and confectionary industries

Enviro-Stewards Inc., is an engineering firm and Certified B Corporation that helps clients increase their profits, sustain the environment, and compellingly benefit society.