What a 120-year-old bakery can teach us about sustainability | Ferguson Plarre’s Steve Plarre

What happens when a 120-year-old company bakes in sustainability for the next hundred years?

In this episode of the Sustainable Transformation Podcast, Kiarne Treacy sits down with Steve Plarre, CEO and Director of Plarre Foods, home to the Aussie icon Ferguson Plarre’s Bakehouses.

With a history dating back to 1901, the business has survived two world wars, the Great Depression, two pandemics, and fed tens of millions of Australians (including the Queen and the President of the United States). But today’s story is about something different: how a family bakery became a quiet sustainability innovator long before most of the industry caught up.

Steve shares how being a multi-generational family business completely reshapes decision-making, because every choice today affects the children and grandchildren who may one day take the reins. That long view has led Ferguson Plarre to rethink energy, waste, supply chains, plant-based innovation and even the way pies are made.

You’ll hear and learn:

• How a 120-year family bakery approaches sustainability with a “next 50–100 years” mindset
• Why waste was always about dollars… and why it’s now also environmental responsibility
• How heat recovery works in a bakery (and why it’s so ahead of its time)
• What customers actually care about in a pie shop and why sustainability still matters
• The surprising process behind their plant-based pies (and the taste test tradies didn’t see coming)
• Why green-hushing is hurting progress and why businesses need to tell their sustainability stories

They did all of this while keeping the beloved classics that defined generations. From refrigerant motors that heat water for free, to vegan sausage rolls that fooled tradies on a construction site, this conversation reveals how sustainability shows up when curiosity, commercial reality and a century-long legacy meet.

This episode is a must-listen for all Aussies, business owners, food manufacturers, sustainability leads and anyone curious about what true long-term thinking looks like inside a beloved Australian brand.

MENTIONS:

• Ferguson Plarre Bakehouse
• Salvation Army Project 614
• 40,000 Tree Ferguson Plarre Forest

LINKS:

Learn more about SustainabilityTracker.com

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CREDITS:

Host: Kiarne Treacy

Guest: Steve Plarre

Guest Company: Ferguson Plarre's Bakehouse

Find more great podcasts like this at novapodcasts.com.au

Nova Entertainment acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we produced this podcast, the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation.

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