LEAMINGTON, ON - In addition to its product portfolio and greenhouse innovations, Westmoreland-TopLine Farms has even more to offer its customers and the industry at large; commitment to sustainability. At the forefront of this company initiative is an intensive solar panel installation.
This project, as Jimmy Coppola, Account Marketing Manager at Westmoreland-TopLine Farms, recently told me, was a big one to undergo, but a decision easily made.
“Going solar fits perfectly into our company’s sustainability initiatives, and helps us offset the energy we consume by generating excess that others around us can utilize,” Jimmy says of the recent installation. “Solar panels also help us continue to reduce our carbon footprint, and ensures that we continue to do so well into the future.”
Westmoreland-TopLine Farms will collect 770 MWh of power each year through the installed 2,325 solar panels. Collected from the rooftop of its Leamington facility, Jimmy says the power will provide for the company’s local grid; including the facility itself, as well as the closest homes, greenhouses, and businesses surrounding it.
“Solar panels will simultaneously increase our efficiencies for energy consumption, and also further reduce waste as we’re now able to fully monitor the input and output of energy, and identify where needless waste is occurring,” Jimmy continues, stating that the panels will also allow for less power to be lost in transmission than traditional power delivery.
Beyond saving 532 tons of carbon emissions per year, roughly equivalent to planting 13,390 trees, with the new solar panels adorning its roof, Westmoreland-TopLine Farms has its eyes set even further than just the solar horizon.
“At the very least, we hope our customers and consumers of our products are aware of our efforts to better ourselves and the operations we run through safe and healthy energy choices,” Jimmy tells me.
From greenhouses with solar curtains, water treated with UV to minimize water and fertilizer loss, to packing facilities with energy-conserving LEDs and packaging with less plastics and more compostable and recyclable elements, Westmoreland-TopLine Farms has more plans in place to function sustainably.
“A project like solar, or any that can generate renewable energy, benefits not only our industry but every industry. These actions ensure future generations have an environment they can enjoy as we have, and that natural resources are conserved,” Jimmy says of the forerunning industry initiative.
And as the company continues its 20-year commitment to giving sustainability an important place at its table of business, we can’t wait to see where Westmoreland-TopLine Farms heads next.
