Bahan bakar dan energi merupakan faktor kunci dalam proses produksi pakan Pilmico. Panas dan uap dalam jumlah besar diperlukan untuk menciptakan produk berkualitas tinggi. Bahan bakar bunker adalah sumber daya bahan bakar yang paling umum; sayangnya, bahan bakar ini juga tidak dapat diperbarui.

Guna menekan konsumsi, Pilmico sejak November 2016 beralih menggunakan sekam padi, limbah dari proses penggilingan padi, sebagai alternatif bahan bakar bunker. Tindakan ini sejalan program Aboitiz Group, Race to Reduce, yang memungkinkan Pilmico untuk sarana berkontribusi pada pelestarian lingkungan sambil mengurangi pengeluaran produksi.

Pada tahun pertama penerapannya, Pilmico mampu menghemat hampir setengah dari penggunaan bahan bakar bunkernya yang terus berlanjut hingga tahun 2018, di mana penghematan bahan bakar meningkat lebih lanjut sebesar 26%. Melalui hal ini, proses produksi perusahaan telah mengalami peningkatan yang signifikan, mengurangi penggunaan bahan bakar hingga lebih dari 60%.

Peningkatan ini hanyalah salah satu dari upaya keberlanjutan Pilmico. Pada tahun 2008, fasilitas peternakan babi Pilmico di Tarlac juga membangun dan memperkenalkan sistem biogas yang mengubah limbah babi menjadi bahan bakar untuk generator, sehingga membuat peternakan mereka menjadi swasembada untuk kebutuhan listriknya.

Melalui upaya-upaya seperti ini, hal ini menunjukkan bagaimana Pilmico terus mencari cara-cara inovatif untuk mengoperasikan bisnis menjadi lebih baik. Pilmico memajukan bisnis dan masyarakat dengan menemukan solusi yang tidak hanya berdampak pada perusahaan, tetapi juga pada masyarakat dan lingkungan.

Pertanyaan yang Sering Diajukan

Is the rice husk solution a permanent or transitional element of Pilmico’s sustainability strategy?
The sustained multi-year implementation and consistently increasing fuel savings — from the program’s launch in 2016 through 2018 — suggest that rice husk fuel use is an embedded, permanent operational choice rather than a transitional experiment. Combined with the biogas system at the Tarlac swine farm, these represent the foundational elements of Pilmico’s approach to renewable energy integration. As the Race to Reduce program continues to evolve, additional sustainability initiatives are likely to build on these established circular-resource foundations.

What makes rice husks an environmentally preferable fuel compared to bunker fuel?
Bunker fuel is a heavy petroleum product — a non-renewable fossil fuel whose combustion releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases accumulated over geological time. Rice husk, by contrast, is a biomass fuel: it releases carbon that was recently absorbed from the atmosphere during the rice plant’s growth cycle, making it part of a short-cycle carbon loop rather than a net addition of ancient carbon to the atmosphere. This classification as a renewable biomass fuel makes rice husk combustion significantly less climate-impactful than equivalent bunker fuel use.

How did the rice husk program progress between 2016 and 2018?
Pilmico began its rice husk fuel substitution program in November 2016. By the end of the first year, it had already achieved close to a 50% reduction in bunker fuel use — a dramatic initial result. Implementation continued through 2017 and into 2018, where the annual fuel savings increased by an additional 26% over the prior year’s already-reduced baseline. The cumulative result was a total fuel use reduction of more than 60% compared to the pre-program baseline — compounding savings year on year rather than plateauing after initial implementation.

How does the rice husk innovation connect to Pilmico’s role as an agribusiness company?
Rice husks are an agricultural by-product — generated by the same rice production sector that is part of Pilmico’s broader agribusiness ecosystem. By creating demand for rice husks as an industrial fuel input, Pilmico simultaneously reduces its own fuel costs, provides an additional revenue stream for rice mills that would otherwise treat husks as waste, and strengthens its integration within the Philippine agricultural supply chain. This is an example of agribusiness synergy — where a by-product of one agricultural process becomes an input for another.

What did Pilmico mean when it described this effort as being green while also lessening the costs of production?
The phrase captures the core argument for sustainability as a business strategy rather than a cost: that environmental responsibility and operational efficiency can be achieved simultaneously when the right innovation is found. Rice husks are both cheaper than bunker fuel and more environmentally favorable. By framing the initiative in these dual terms — green and economical — Pilmico makes a business case for sustainability that does not require trading off profitability for environmental responsibility, countering the common assumption that being green is an additional cost burden.