Small Steps, Big Impact: How Bunge’s Xiamen Plant in China is Steaming Toward Environmental Excellence

Steam is essential to many of our plants’ operations, supporting processes such as heating, refining, and safe product handling. Generating steam requires significant energy, which directly impacts Bunge’s carbon footprint and our operational efficiency and environmental performance.

At our Xiamen, China, plant, an optimization of steam use—guided by the Bunge Production System and continuous improvement mindset—led to a 2025 reduction of carbon intensity by 10% and a 3% drop in absolute carbon emissions, while increasing production volumes by 8%.

The Xiamen plant produces plant-based specialty oils and fats for food applications like confectionery, bakery, and infant nutrition. While the facility was designed with modern, optimized systems and commissioned in 2018, the team is continuously seeking to  improve its performance. 

Through collaborative brainstorming and data-driven analysis, the team identified everyday processes where adjustments could further optimize energy use and yield substantial sustainability gains, all while maintaining safety, quality, and production requirements. The review focused on how steam was distributed and used across the facility, with several targeted actions:

• Equipment optimization: Replacing steam-powered vacuum pumps with mechanical alternatives saved 1,900 tons of steam annually, offsetting carbon emissions equivalent to the annual absorption of a forest the size of 25 football fields.
• Improved heat recovery: When warming up incoming oils, the plant uses heat exchangers containing both hot water and steam. By resizing the steam heat exchanger, the team eliminated the need for extra hot water heating, saving another 1,400 tons of steam per year.
• Thermal loss prevention: Insulating more than 2,100 "steam traps" (valves that filter out condensation but keep steam in the pipes) prevented valuable heat from escaping into the surrounding air.

Beyond steam optimization, in 2025, the Xiamen plant surpassed all its environmental goals, achieving a 6% reduction in water intensity, a 9% decrease in energy intensity, and a 4% reduction in total waste intensity.

These achievements are a testament to our collective impact and our core value to do what’s right. Learn more about Bunge’s sustainability journey here.