Proactive environmental management for a global food production company in Chile

Agrosuper, using insights from Environmental Intelligence to avoid impacts and become a more sustainable manufacturer.

Key Stats

60+ years continuous operations

5+ large scale agricultural operations

94% reductions in emissions

Company

Agrosuper is a global food production company based out of Chile that has been in operation for over 60 years.

Region

Americas

Industries

Industrial

Platforms

EVS Omnis

Agrosuper is a global food production company based out of Chile that has been in operation for over 60 years. As a company that is integral to economic growth and development of the country, Agrosuper has ensured that their practices have evolved with the changing environment and have placed a strong focus on sustainable development and environmental aspects of their business.

Project overview

A multi-year $250M transformation program to improve environmental impact and footprint

As part of a multi-year, $250M transformation program to improve their environmental impact and footprint, Agrosuper looked for a partner to help them measure, monitor and optimise their  Sopraval operations as they transform to become a more sustainable and environmentally responsible company with environmental intelligence technology.

“We have promoted the search for and inclusion of innovative technologies that allow us to manage our production process, which together with the application of rigorous standards allows us to continue improving and operating responsibly with the environment and neighbouring communities.”

- Martín Landea, Deputy Manager of Sustainability at Agrosuper

Challenges

Avoiding impact on surrounding communities and several nearby tourist attractions

As with most industries, Sopraval has been impacted by urbanisation. Neighbouring the facilities are ever growing communities and tourist attractions that are increasing in popularity. As predominantly farming and processing facilities, Sopraval’s locations contain composting fields, pavilions and other ancillary sites required as part of the operations. Given the bio-agriculture nature of the business, environmental emissions are a concern for the organisation.

When industry and community intersect, environmental impacts generated from production can cause community complaints, which lead to penalties and potential shutdowns. Managing operations with the community in mind is more critical than ever to increasing social licence to operate.

As an organisation focused on responsible production and invested in the transformation of their business value chain, Sopraval were focused on finding technology that would help them to measure and manage environmental impact through their production processes, improve their speed to investigations and to automate the monthly emissions reports to proactively demonstrate compliance in anticipation of local regulations.

Solution

Environmental intelligence powered by air quality monitoring and local weather data

Working with the team at Envirosuite, Sopraval implemented weather stations, air quality instrumentation and Envirosuite’s proprietary software, so the operations team can use weather forecasts to simulate emissions trajectory and predict the hours that are at most risk of causing an impact on the neighbouring community.

The advanced modelling algorithms and reporting provide Sopraval with a simple to follow colour coded reporting solution, that provides actionable insights into the optimal time to manage responsible production. By adjusting their schedules to lower impact times, the operations team have been able to increase productivity while improving community relations.

Results

A 94% reduction in emissions across their business

With Envirosuite, Sopraval have achieved the following benefits:  

Improving the efficiency of the composting process, by re-scheduling their operations according to forecasting dispersion models, which has allowed them to speed up the composting process and accelerate production efficiency  
By combining meteorological data with spatial mapping Sopraval can minimise emissions and impact to the community, which in turn reduces complaints  
Sopraval have been able to transform and digitalise their operations to include predictive modelling for sustainable and responsible operations, now and into the future  

Since undertaking their USD$250M transformation program of composting fields, treatment plants, mechanic ventilated barns, domes, biodigesters and biofilters, Agrosuper has successfully generated a 94% emission reduction across their business.