Kimberly-Clark Professional Launches First-Ever Wind Farm

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• Kimberly-Clark Professional Launches First-Ever Wind Farm

14 September 2023

The parent company of brands such as Andrex and Kleenex has opened its own onshore wind farm to supply around 80 per cent of its UK electrical power needs.

The wind farm will supply Kimberly-Clark Professional with approximately 160,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable energy every year. This will result in a total emissions reduction of 55,625 MTCO2e per year, the equivalent of taking 38,628 passenger vehicles off the road every year.

The green power will be used by Kimberly-Clark’s manufacturing facilities across the UK, making up almost 80 per cent of the electricity needs for its Barrow, Flint and Northfleet manufacturing facilities. 

The £75 million wind farm was built in just 18 months in South Lanarkshire, Scotland and was officially opened by Màiri McAllan, Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Clydesdale constituency and Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition.

The site is the largest wind asset owned by Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust (ORIT), a company managed by Octopus Energy Generation. Kimberly-Clark has a Power Purchase Agreement for the energy generated.

Craig Bowman, General Manager, Kimberly-Clark Professional UK & Ireland said, “It is through responsible and innovative business partnerships and investments in new technology like this agreement with ORIT that enables us to make significant changes in this decisive decade and reach our decarbonisation goals.”

“We adopt a life cycle approach to sustainability, starting by designing products to reduce consumption, reducing the use of natural resources and diverting our manufacturing waste from landfill. This enables us to provide customers with high performance products and systems that help them reduce usage and waste. By reducing energy use (scope 1) and prioritising and using renewable energy in our operations (scope 2) we are reducing the carbon impact of our products (customer scope 3 emissions).”

Picture: a photograph of the official opening of the wind farm by Màiri McAllan, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Clydesdale and Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition, together with Dan Howell, Managing Director & Vice-President Kimberly-Clark Consumer, UK & Ireland and Phillip Austin, MBE, Chairman of Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust. Image Credit: Kimberly-Clark Professional

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 14 September 2023

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