About British Sugar

Located in Wissington, Norfolk, British Sugar is the United Kingdom’s (UK) largest sugar beet refinery. In 1912 their first factory was built in Cantley, Norfolk, and in 1936 the factories were amalgamated into the British Sugar Corporation to manage the entire domestic crop.

The Challenge

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is a form of circular economy that connects businesses from various industries to increase waste valorisation, improve resource efficiency, and reduce environmental impact (Trokanas et al., 2014).

The gradual opening of the UK sugar market to global competition, as well as the subsequent competition with low- cost sugar produced in developing nations, contributed to a change in the global market (Benedetti, 2017).

The main challenge that led British Sugar to implement industrial symbiosis (IS) was the need to adapt and maintain its competitive advantage in this changing global market (Benedetti, 2017).

The Circular Solution in Practice

British Sugar is the leading producer of sugar for the British and Irish food and beverage sectors, processing about eight million tonnes of sugar beet and producing up to 1.2 million tonnes of sugar each year. They work in partnership with over 2,300 growers. They utilise waste materials from their sugar production process, as well as certain external partnerships, to make 12 different saleable products (EU, 2023).

Their innovative manufacturing approach also allows them to create co-products ranging from power generation and bioethanol to animal feed and much more. For instance, the beet washing residual soil is sold under a different brand called Topsoil (Shi et al., 2021).

The limestone used for purification is utilised to produce a lime substance that regulates soil acidity to improve soil quality, and this business has become the primary source of agricultural lime in Britain (Shi et al., 2021). They also use the highly concentrated CO2 and waste heat generated during the manufacturing process in the greenhouse to create better growing conditions for tomatoes, making them Europe’s second largest tomato supplier (Shi et al., 2021).

These initiatives created significant economic value by generating new revenue streams and reducing waste disposal costs (Shi et al., 2021). The Wissington facility processes 3.5 million tonnes of sugar beet every year, yet less than 100 tonnes of waste is sent to the landfill (Shi et al., 2021).

Environmental Impact

Since 2014, these processes have resulted in a 26% reduction in water usage, a 12% reduction in energy usage and a 17% reduction in CO2. The factories operate using management systems accredited to ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, ISO 50001, BRC and FEMAS. Moreover, British Sugar is playing a part in meeting the industry-focused goals of the United Nation’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, such as SDG9 ‘Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation’. Focusing on continuous improvement, the company supported this goal by applying a circular solution that helped reduce its end-to-end supply chain water and CO2 footprints by 30%, and by ensuring all plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable, biodegradable and / or compostable and providing access to objective scientific advice on sugar.

Replicability

The British Sugar case illustrates how the groundwork of Industrial Symbiosis can create opportunities for business innovation towards sustainability, by seeking opportunities to turn waste streams and emissions from core production processes into useful and positive inputs to new product lines.

Replicability enhances the goal of reusing networked resources including water, energy, and materials both within a single company or industry or across multiple businesses in traditionally separate industries.

Another significant IS project is Kalundborg Symbiosis, the world’s first IS initiative that has evolved over the past 50 years. This partnership of 17 public and private companies has more than 30 different streams of excess resources flowing between them.