Award winning local manufacturer and distributor of fine organic and natural foods, SunRidge Farms, announced that it plans to install a 99 kilowatt state-of-the-art solar electric system onto the roof of its 160,000sq. Pajaro facility this spring. The project is expected to offset over 75% of the buildings peak energy usage during the warm summer months. It will be installed by Independent Energy Systems of Santa Cruz.
“This is a significant milestone in realizing our companys vision to support successful, sustainable resolutions to the environmental challenges we all face” stated company spokesperson Mary Quillin.
To that end, the company converted its fleet of 17 delivery trucks to biodiesel and purchased several hybrid vehicles for sales staff last summer. “Once we made the transition to greener transportation, we focused our attention on additional ways the company could reduce its carbon footprint” says Quillin.
The California Solar Initiative incentives that recently became available, with the passage of SB#1, gave SunRidge the perfect opportunity to go solar. The company plan is to use some of the significant savings in energy costs they will realize to fund further solar projects in their manufacturing and operations. SunRidge is currently in the process of becoming a green certified business.
“Were looking forward to the day when we can heat our chocolate tanks with a solar thermal system, manufacture and store our organic trail mixes and confections in our solar “cooled” warehouse and then deliver these healthy organic snacks in our biodiesel trucks!” stated Quillin. Indeed the future is very bright for SunRidge Farms.
SunRidge Farms began growing its business locally in 1977 and now provides bulk and packaged organic and natural snack mixes, nuts and seeds, dried fruits, grains, and confectioneries to over 5,500 retail stores across the nation. The SunRidge product line can be found locally in most grocery and natural food stores. For more information contact Mary Quillin at SunRidge Farms (831)786-7000.
A “Carbon Footprint” is the measure of impact that human activities have on the environment and the health of the planet. It refers to the amount of greenhouse gasses produced that increase carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and thereby accelerate the condition of global warming.