After seeing Osito Bimbo – a bear with a baker’s hat and apron – on a package of pastries or bread, many immediately recognize the Bimbo brand.
Bimbo Bakeries is the largest bakery in the U.S., and the world, and is especially well-known among the Mexican and Latin American community.
One of their bakeries is located in Montebello – a city with a majority population of Hispanic residents. The bakery has recently made changes in an effort to become more environmentally friendly and sustainable.
The Montebello bakery is now home to the company’s new, and largest microgrids – made up of solar arrays and battery storage for renewable energy – that will help reduce carbon emissions in Montebello, as well as other bakeries across the state.
The microgrids will help deliver approximately 20% of the combined electricity needs for six California sites, resulting in a 20% reduction in carbon emissions, which is an estimated 1,700 carbon emission tons per year, according to a press release.
These changes are in support of Bimbo Bakeries parent company Grupo Bimbo’s goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Along with Montebello, sites in Placentia, Oxnard, San Luis Obispo, South San Francisco, and Sacramento were chosen to install the microgrids. These sites were selected based on their energy intensity, increasing utility electricity costs and highest decarbonization impact, according to a press release.
Bimbo Bakeries and Grupo Bimbo are working on additional sites for future deployment, officials say.
“I’m just extremely proud and very impressed by Bimbo Bakeries USA for taking on the investment and initiative in moving their industry towards renewable energy and setting that vital example to our businesses here in Montebello that it’s possible,” said Montebello Mayor Scarlet Peralta. “It really is setting the future of sustainable practices that will not only benefit our generation but future generations as well.”
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Bimbos Bakeries and the City of Montebello celebrated the company’s sustainability commitments on Tuesday, March 12, at a ribbon cutting ceremony.
“As the largest bakery in the United States, largest bakery in the world, and as a food manufacturer, we feel like it’s our obligation to lead from an emission standpoint and also a waste reduction standpoint,” Chris Wolfe, Bimbo Bakeries USA’s Senior Director of Environmental Sustainability, said on Tuesday. “It’s fascinating, and it’s a tremendous honor.”