Mars steams ahead with renewable technology for pet food process

As cities worldwide record their highest-ever temperatures, sea levels continue to rise and extreme weather events like bushfires, floods and electrical storms become more frequent, our leaders must address environmental concerns by rethinking and reframing our approach to living and thriving on planet Earth. At the frontline of leadership climate action, bold new sustainability practices must be initiated by large organisations and driven both internally and through the wider stakeholder ecosystem.

For Mars, sustainable practice is about acceleration, affordability and achievability. Globally we have just announced that we will be investing $1 billion over the next three years to drive climate action — from farm to table and pet food bowl, supply chain to the grocery store and home to veterinary clinics. Mars has also committed to cut 50% of its emissions — approximately 15 million metric tons — by 2030 across its full global value chain.

Closer to home, Mars Petcare Australia has developed an open-source plan in the pursuit of sustainable productivity by creating a ‘world-first’ pioneering solution for how the company manufactures pet food, whilst simultaneously decreasing its carbon emissions and footprint.

The deployment of ‘Green Steam’ at Mars Petcare’s Wodonga facility is the result of a successful collaboration with Graphite Energy and represents Australia’s first commercial use of an Electric Thermal Energy Storage (eTES) system for the production of process heat in manufacturing.

Commencing operations in June 2023, this innovative approach allows our factory in Wodonga, Victoria, to use renewable steam to cook pet food products. It does so by using renewable electricity generated by low-cost daytime photovoltaic (PV) electricity (solar) to generate and store heat at temperatures of up to 700°C in Graphite Energy’s orange box.

The eTES system allows the stored heat to be converted into high-quality steam on demand to cook Mars Petcare’s pet food for the nation’s six million dogs and five million cats.

To date, the Green Steam system has helped decrease the Wodonga factory’s gas consumption by 20%, with a corresponding reduction in emissions, and is replacing up to 9000 GJ/year of natural gas. The success to date also demonstrates Mars Australia’s intention to take a lead role on accelerating the longer-term market decarbonisation opportunity and helping the wider organisation achieve its net zero goals as the company transitions to 100% renewable energy.

Change such as this only occurs when individuals and organisations shift their thinking, harness the power of sustainable practices and envision a better future for our world. The success of the Green Steam venture is testament to our collaboration with Graphite Energy and the CSIRO’s Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute, a symbiotic relationship that has enabled real-life integration experience for our partners and benefited Mars globally through groundbreaking exposure to such new tech.

Mars Petcare’s long-term goal is to continue its collaboration with partners such as these as well as work more closely with the Victorian Government and leading industry bodies to help influence and drive positive change that supports Australia’s sustainability challenge. However, time is of the essence, and the next six years will be critical as we look to grow Green Steam’s footprint across Australia and the rest of the world.

Mars Petcare’s goal is to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2040 and full decarbonisation by 2050. Thanks to sustainable innovation such as the Green Steam technology, goals such as these will be feasible without having to make a trade-off between the planet and productivity.