The innovation was developed by a team of in-house specialists at the paper and specialist materials manufacturer and the funding has been awarded as part of the government’s Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF), designed to support industry on the path to energy demand reduction and Net Zero.

As a business in an energy intensive industry, the majority of James Cropper’s energy and emissions result from heat demand. Decarbonising this heat will be the focus of the IETF funded deployment project and will deliver a step-change reduction in primary energy usage. This will require an overhaul of how energy is consumed and managed on site.

The project is expected to result in a 24.3% reduction of annual gas consumption by over 47,000 MWh and in over 8,600 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

James Cropper said the success of the programme would put it on track to deliver “significant decarbonisation advances and act as a crucial reference case for other large heat consumers to follow”.

CEO Steve Adams said: “At James Cropper, we have ambitious plans to eliminate our direct emissions. The support from IETF will enable us to make the first step-change on this journey; by electrifying our heat we can decouple our business from fossil fuels.

“We hope this investment will be an exemplar for other heat intensive businesses to follow and accelerate their own transitions to net zero.”

James Cropper said its goal is to be operationally net zero by 2030 and to reduce carbon through its entire supply chain to net zero by 2050.

The IETF funding will enable James Cropper to deliver the programme by providing essential capital support to retrofit the “engineering solution” to existing equipment within a new low carbon energy centre.

This will be the first part in delivering a multi-stage programme to reach the company’s 2030 goals.

Established in 1845, James Cropper employs over 600 staff internationally and has an operational reach in over 50 countries.