Innocent Drinks chooses super-sustainable design for $250m Rotterdam blender plant

A carbon-neutral design has been selected for a "blender" factory for juice and smoothie company Innocent Drinks in Holland.

Located in Rotterdam’s food district, the $250m development will produce 400 million bottles of juice a year and support 190 jobs.

The blender factory will bring the group’s manufacturing operations largely in-house, reducing its carbon footprint. Fruit used during manufacture will mostly arrive through Rotterdam’s port and water will be recycled and reused.

Chris Fielden, Innocent Drinks’ supply chain director, said: "Designing, building and operating a sustainable factory starts with a very dedicated and aligned team of partners with a shared vision on sustainability, targeting water, energy and waste reduction."

Industry consultant Integrated Food Projects (IFP) worked with London’s Innocent Drinks on the project.

Matt Carr, IFP’s managing director, said: "Carbon neutrality is a moving target, so while green diesel and biomass energy were considered green fuels as recently as 2017, today they are not.

"This meant we needed to future-proof this factory, so that Innocent would continue to uphold the high sustainability standards it had set out to achieve."

The blender plant is due to open halfway through 2021.

Images courtesy of IFP