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Origin Green is Ireland’s national food sustainability programme. It is a voluntary programme led by Bord Bia that brings together farmers, food producers, retailers and food service operators with the common goal of sustainable food production. In this interview, William Despard (pictured), owner and managing director of The Bretzel Bakery, explains how engaging with Origin Green has driven sustainability initiatives that benefit the business .
What is the background of The Bretzel Bakery?
The Bretzel Bakery is a modern artisan bakery with a long history. Dating from the late 19th century and originally a local Jewish bakery, there has been baking in the Lennox Street premises ever since. As current owner and managing director, I am proud to have transformed it from an ailing bakery in 2000 to the thriving business it is today.
We moved the main production to a purpose-built site in Harold’s Cross in December 2013, keeping the original shop and bakery in Lennox Street and adding a café in 2014. We deliver to nearly 200 customers in the greater Dublin area, supplying handmade sourdoughs and other breads and pastries to restaurants, cafes and food service companies.
What are the key points of your sustainability plan?
The Bretzel Bakery’s Origin Green plan has nine targets. We believe that they are interlinked and are aimed at creating a better working and living environment. Key targets include the responsible use of energy, reducing emissions and engaging positively with our community. We also aim to reduce waste and source recyclable materials for packaging as far as possible. We aspire to sourcing our raw materials from sustainable suppliers to create a chain effect of sustainability.
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How does technology help with your Origin Green plan?
We have benefitted from using the innovative tracking system provided by Cognition. Because temperature is crucial in the baking of long fermentation breads, having a sophisticated thermal monitor ensures more consistent quality in the artisan bread. Reducing wastage of raw materials and our own product is a key driver of efficiencies.
Sensors capture data and feed it to an analytics platform, which allows us to monitor various aspects of the bakery. As a result, we have identified electricity usage that was wasteful and has since been streamlined, saving both energy and money.
Our new baking facility, which will be operational later this year, will have no electric ovens as a result of these findings. Such information allows us to make informed and intelligent decisions, which impacts on our bottom line and helps safeguard resources. In 2018, we concentrated on monitoring energy resources. This year, we have an additional system that allows us to see where each kilo of flour and litre of water ends up in the process.
I am not aware of anyone else using this smart technology in a bakery in Ireland. We certainly were the first but there may be others.
What progress have you made in your Origin Green plan?
Initial analysis indicates that we have met if not exceeded some of our targets for this year. We are currently in the process of reviewing it. However, even the process of engaging with Origin Green has made us really examine what we are doing as a company, how we are doing it and how we can do it better.
