Reducing thermal heat and water conservation remain some of the major environmental initiatives that may take the baking industry more time to solve.

“Water is essential to our baking processes as an ingredient and for sanitation,” said Margaret Ann Marsh, senior vice president for safety, sustainability and environmental, Flowers Foods, Thomasville, Ga. “We seek ways to conserve water without compromising sanitation standards by implementing sustainable cleaning practices, which can include removing solids before using water and alternative cleaning equipment like steam cleaners.”

However, she added, these practices are more complex than installing upgraded equipment because they require behavioral change and rely on consistency to drive results.

“There are also limited opportunities to reuse water in baking processes while maintaining high standards for food safety,” Marsh explained. “When possible, we reuse water for equipment that does not come into direct contact with food products, such as cooling towers.”

Because energy is used in almost every facet of baking, downsizing a facility’s overall thermal load requires a multifaceted approach that’s complex to solve, noted Chris Wolfe, senior director of environmental sustainability, Bimbo Bakeries USA, Horsham, Pa.

Industrial heat pumps, for instance, can play a role, but harvesting and reusing large amounts of energy requires several significant investments and more affordable technology in the future.

“It will require a combination of efforts to reduce the amount of emissions associated with the thermal side,” he observed. “We can get there with thermal controls on ovens, replacing steam boilers with small footprint, high-efficiency ones, leveraging heat recovery where it makes sense, and emerging technology that isn’t there yet.

He predicted ovens, for example, will go hybrid first, initially with a combination of electrical and natural gas before they transform to 100% electric.

“I don’t know when electrical is going to happen,” Wolfe said. “I know the industry is looking at hydrogen and other alternatives to natural gas. It’s one of the biggest challenges from the emissions standpoint.”

Paul Bakus, president North America, Puratos, suggested the sustainability solutions are different for various parts of the baking industry. 

“Bakeries are using a lot more gas than an ingredient company is using, and gas comes with a significant amount of carbon emissions,” he said. “It’s going to be more challenging for a company that is baking than an ingredient supplier to address some of the challenges.”

Ingredient companies, he added, are focusing on their vendors to be more sustainable through regenerative agriculture and assisting others like cocoa farmers through incentives such as local community investments.

Meanwhile, Bakus said, equipment makers face sustainability concerns from the steel and metal mining producers that supply them with materials. 

“Every company and industry are going to be facing the sustainability challenges from a very unique perspective, but what’s great about what I've seen is that every segment has come together to identify what are the key levers that need to be pulled in their particular industry to be able to have a positive impact,” he explained. “The good news is we’re making progress along the way, and I feel very comfortable with the fact that our industry isn’t perfect from a sustainability perspective, but we have the commitment to improve, regardless of where you are in the bakery segment.”

What Bakus likes most about sustainability involves the cooperative nature of the industry.

“Most companies are willing to share their knowledge about how they've dealt with certain issues,” he said. “It’s all for the benefit of society or the environment. I don’t care where the good ideas are coming from, whether it’s Europe, whether it’s Asia or South America. Let’s find those best practices and make those a priority so that we can collectively have a much more positive impact on the challenges that the industry is facing from a sustainability perspective.”