They also provide significant economy-wide benefits Indeed, the economic benefits created by investments in energy efficiency almost always exceed the costs of implementing efficiency programs.

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The company said it was implementing three efficiency programmes: one in Germany, one in the UK, and a third for the rest of Europe.

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It has also been implementing an efficiency initiative, Project Keystone, a global effort to enhance the competitiveness and efficiency of Heinz to better leverage its scale.

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The main reason was the one-off impact of an accounting change, and the cost of implementing the firm's GLOBE operational efficiency and performance programme.

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China has made energy efficiency one of its top priorities, but implementing it is not proving easy.

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