Muntons, the Stowmarket-based supplier of malt and malted ingredients to the food and beverage industry, has been named the UK’s 20^th greenest company in a Sunday Times ranking of the country’s most environmentally friendly businesses.

The company, which employs 260 people, rose an incredible 21 places on last year’s ranking to finish higher than the likes of drinks giant Coca-Cola, global banking colossus HSBC and DIY chain B&Q. Muntons was also the highest ranking business in the whole of the UK’s food sector.

It was the third year that Muntons has featured in the Sunday Times Best Green Companies awards scheme, which recognises businesses in all sectors for their efforts to reduce their impact on the environment. The judges of this year’s competition were impressed by a number of initiatives, large and small, implemented by Muntons at its processing site in Stowmarket. These included:

A £5 million investment in environmentally-favourable processing equipment to reduce energy usage and carbon emissions

Installation of the most energy efficient kilning systems in the world

A major initiative to investigate supplier sustainability programmes

Conversion of previously unused land into fertile allotments on which Muntons staff are encouraged to grow their own vegetables

Alan Ridealgh, Managing Director of Muntons, said: “As a responsible business, I’m very proud of our Top 20 placing. It reflects the substantial progress we’ve made in the past year to reduce the impact of our operations on both the local and global environment. Central to our approach is the idea that we should, wherever possible, make real carbon savings – rather than simply offsetting our activities. It’s this philosophy that ensures we are now considered one of the top performing businesses in the country when it comes to green initiatives.”

As well as its impressive overall ranking, Muntons also performed well in a number of sub-categories. It was judged 6^th best in terms of the environmental training it gives its staff, 10^th best for enabling staff to reduce the company’s environmental impact ,and it secured a Top 10 finish on the basis of the frequency of which it carries out environmental auditing.

Alan Ridealgh added: “It’s important to remember that none of our achievements would have been possible without our wonderful and dedicated teams within our organisation, who are constantly looking at how we do things to see if they can be done in a more environmentally-friendly way. We won’t be resting on our laurels. We’ll be maintaining our efforts to see if we can achieve an even higher placing in next year’s Sunday Times Best Green Companies competition.”