Last year, Fevia Vlaanderen, the Flemish food federation launched an innovative pilot programme with the support of the Flemish government to make the SMEs in the Flemish food industry more energy-efficient for two years.
The Easy Food Energy Savers programme, EFES, is a pilot project in which SMEs can call on a ‘carer’ free of charge who advises and guides them to reduce their energy consumption. The project includes 50 SMEs over a two-year period to help them become more energy efficient.
The measures implemented by the SMEs are often simple but essential interventions: from the installation of solar panels, insulation of pipes, limitation of indoor and outdoor lighting, checking compressed air leaks, energy monitoring to lowering the compressed air pressure.
As a result of the project, one-third of the participating companies are already saving the equivalent annual energy consumption of 84 households. In addition to energy savings, the project has also stimulated companies to invest in renewable energy. For example, thanks to this project, meat producer Breydel has moved to solar panels for the generation of 15% of their energy.
