The Sustainable Plant

The consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, including food and beverage, is at the head of the pack in applying sustainability initiatives.

The statement was recently verified through a report from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) with assistance from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). “We knew anecdotally that GMA members were doing a lot, but we wanted to quantify that leadership,” said Meghan Stasz, GMA senior director, sustainability. So the association asked PwC to conduct a study on the industry’s progress, innovation, and achievements in sustainability, focused on air, water, and waste, and including specific examples. The association plans to publish the report, “Environmental Success Stories in the Consumer Packaged Goods Industry,” annually.

“We wanted to demonstrate how the CPG sector is doing as a whole and highlight particular case studies of innovation,” Stasz said.

In the food and beverage sector, she said, the sustainability trend seems to focus primarily on reducing and reusing waste, including that of packaging, food and a general increase in supply chain efficiencies. In many cases, as shown in the following examples, manufacturers are finding ways to convert waste into energy. “Because it is quantifiable,” Stasz said, “a lot of sustainability programs start with energy.” Companies see how much money goes into paying for energy and realize that they can save money and “do right by the environment” by implementing initiatives.

Water conservation and recycling are also getting increased focus, she said. Although water is currently plentiful n the developed world, there are many areas of the world where it is not. “Water is really going to be a big issue going forward.”

There is also a consumer trend toward environmentalism and sustainability, however it is not a trend that necessarily translates well into decisive preferences for manufacturing initiatives. “It depends on your consumer,” Stasz said. “Different consumers are buying different products for different reasons. Many do want products that are doing right by the environment, but they also want the product to do what they expect it to do.” They don’t want sustainability initiatives to compromise the product.

One area, however, that is a key focus is packaging, primarily because it is so highly visible and consumers interact with it. “Packaging is definitely something that consumers talk about a lot and have a lot of feedback on. But whether a box of cereal is transported in an efficient way is simply a bonus,” she said.

Attempting to predict consumer preference can also be very difficult. Take, for example, the 2009 “green” SunChips bag from FritoLay. The bag may have been biodegradable, but any touch of the material was so noisy that it was pulled from the market after 18 months. “Consumers like what they like, and sometimes an innovation comes out and consumers don’t like it, and we have to try something else,” Stasz said.”But that’s okay. That’s the system.” It is through such trial and error that the industry learns to both meet consumer needs and expectations while still paying attention to environmental concerns.

All that said, “I think the big takeaway from our report is that our industry is really leading in sustainability, and we should be proud of it,” Stasz said.

Industry Innovation. Some examples of industry innovation in sustainability, as cited in the GMA report or from manufacturer releases, are:

ConAgra Foods, Omaha, Neb. – In 2011, the company was added to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North America, based on a rigorous analysis of its corporate, economic, environmental, and social performance. Additionally, the company was included in the GMA report for its tomato fresh-pack facility in Helm, Calif., which reconfigured its tomato-paste-making process to capture the water removed from raw tomatoes. The reclaimed water supplies the site’s boilers, cooling towers and tanks, and is for agriculture irrigation (after being re-circulated up to three times).

Results: This program

• conserves nearly 56 million gallons annually, equivalent to the amount consumed by 560 average American households in a year.

General Mills, Fridley, Minn. – The company burns leftover oat hulls at its biomass-powered plant producing 90 percent of the steam required to heat the plant and produce the flour used to make Cheerios and other products.

Results: The process:

• saves nearly $400,000 annually.
• cuts the plant’s carbon footprint by about 21 percent.
• burning at a nearby biomass plant also generates enough electricity, on average, to power approximately 17,000 homes.

Smithfield Foods, Arnold, Pa. – Reduction in waste to landfill is driven by projects such as that at the North Side Foods facility where plant operators are using a commercial digester that converts sludge to biogas.

Results: This alternative method

• turns waste into electricity.
• lowers disposal cost by 25 percent .
• saves the plant $100,000 annually.

Kraft Foods, Springfield, Mo. – Kraft located one of its refrigerated-storage facilities underground in natural limestone caves. The central U.S. location takes advantage of natural insulation and enables Kraft to consolidate inventory and reduce transport miles.

Results: The site:

• uses 65 percent less energy than conventional storage facilities.
• saves the company 1,800 metric tons of CO₂ emissions, 180,000 gallons of fuel, and one million miles of truck travel annually.

In 2007, Kraft also launched a program with the global recycling company, Sonoco Recycling, enabling manufacturing waste to be reduced, new uses found for the waste that is produced, and manufacturing byproducts to be turned into new energy sources. Initiatives also included changing of employee practices, business practices, and culture, along with creating new partnerships to “turn waste into something of value.” 

Results: The company:

1. has 36 facilities in 13 countries that send zero waste to landfills, including 24 plants in Europe and 12 facilities in North America.
2. reduced its manufacturing waste by 50 percent since 2005.
3. Recycles or reuses about 90% of manufacturing waste.

Additionally, its development of a new packaging design, the Yield, Ease and Sustainability (YES) pack, was awarded a 2012 DuPont Packaging Award and the National Restaurant Association Food and Beverage Product Innovation Award. The YES Pack was recognized for the flexible nature of its packaging which allows operators to easily extract up to 99% of the dressing inside.

Results: Compared with rigid gallon jugs, the YES Pack:

• is recyclable, but if thrown away, takes up 86% less dumpster space and 50% less landfill space.
• is made with 50% less energy, 60% less plastic, and 70% fewer CO₂ emissions from transportation.

Nestle, Vevey, Switzerland – For the last 30 years, Nestle coffee operations have been converting spent coffee grounds into fuel, and of its 27 coffee factories where spent grounds are a by-product, 21 are equipped with such technology. Two examples include the overseas Nestle operations: Cagayan de Oro factory in the Philippines, which combines the process with a change from heavy fuel oil to diesel oil and the Bugalagrande factory in Colombia, where the installation of the spent coffee grounds-fueled boiler allows the recovery of energy from this biomass.

Results: the Philippines plant:

• decreased reliance on non-renewable fuels.
• saved more than 4,000 metric tons of oil equivalents.
• reduced sulfur oxide emissions by nearly 300 metric tons.
• prevents about 70,000 metric tons of waste going to landfill.

In Colombia, the renewable fuel:

• provides 13% of the total energy required in the factory.
• has 95% lower CO2 emissions than the fossil fuel it replaces.

Pepperidge Farm received a DuPont Award for Packaging Innovation and an Ameristar award from the Institute of Packaging Professionals in recognition of the company’s Deli Flats thin rolls and Goldfish breads, both of which are made of flexible film lamination. According to the DuPont Awards panel, who recognized Pepperidge Farm with a gold level honor, “this is an outstanding example of how innovation can be simple and affordable for consumers, while making a splash on store shelves.”

Results: The compact packaging:

• reduces the use of materials by 65 percent.
• allows for 25 percent more product to be shipped in the same shipping unit, resulting in reduced transportation costs and a smaller carbon footprint.

The Dairy Industry. In March, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy announced the winners of the inaugural U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards, a program to recognize dairy farms, dairy companies, and collaborative partnerships for efforts that advance the sustainability of the dairy industry. “Across the supply chain, the dairy industry continues to demonstrate leadership in meeting consumer demand for great-tasting, wholesome, and nutritious dairy products, while finding new ways to preserve our planet’s precious resources,” said Barbara O’Brien, president of the Innovation Center. Included among the winners were:

Brubaker Farms, Mount Joy, Pa. – Bru-baker mastered energy efficiency by creating a new revenue stream through the implementation of an anaerobic digester system. The family shares its lessons learned by hosting busloads of visitors to tour the property.

Results: The farm now:

• produces its own electricity, and the surplus electricity (enough to power approximately 200 homes) is sold to the local utility.
• has three solar panels totaling 10,000 square feet producing an additional 130 to 150 kWh on sunny days.

Dean Foods Company and AgPower Partners collaborated to form DF-AP of Gooding, Idaho, the first third-party owned and operated dairy digester project in the nation. From its first year in operation, the project has been financially self-sustaining and has paid a return to its investors, while lowering operational costs for the dairy, improving manure management, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Results: The digester:

• produces enough energy to power approximately 900 homes.
• produces 34,000 cubic yards of ammonia-free fiber that is sold at retail as a landscape fertilizer.

Darigold, Seattle, Wash. – Through a company-wide commitment to sustainability, employees are empowered to work together to reduce use of water, fuel, energy, and waste.

Results: By improving water usage by more than 13 percent (water gallons per unit), recycling 50 percent of its waste, and completing more than 20 sustainability-driven packaging redesigns, the company:

• has seen nearly a 50 percent improvement in fuel usage per unit, equal to more than 216,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually.
• reduced packaging cost by more than $1 million and greatly reduced corrugated and plastic usage.

Oakhurst Dairy, Portland, Maine – As one of the first companies in Maine to sign on to the governor’s Carbon Challenge, it has developed a sustainability roadmap with long-term reduction goals across all aspects of the operation. It has implemented a variety of other sustainability initiatives from installation of a solar-energy system to the use of hybrid delivery trucks and biodiesel fuel.

Results: Over a two-year period (2008-2010):

• it reduced its plant energy, greenhouse gas emissions, water use and transportation fuel use by roughly 10 percent each—achieving half of its overall goal.

Blue Spruce Farm, Bridport, Vt. – Operated by the Audet family, the dairy farm was one of the first farms in the U.S. to install a variable-speed vacuum pump control, reducing energy used during milking by nearly 60 percent. It also was the first to participate in the Central Vermont Public Service’s Cow Power program, which allows consumers to purchase renewable energy generated on a dairy farm.

Results: By implementing new technologies in lighting, milking, milk cooling, barn construction, ventilation, and water heating, the farm:

• reduced energy use from an average of 1,000 kWh per cow per year, to an average of 500 kWh per cow per year.
• resulting in reduced greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 500 pounds of CO2-equivalent per cow per year.

Holsum Dairies, Hilbert, Wis. – The dairy designed its plant and planned its operations with sustainability of the community and the natural environment as significant considerations. The company partners with nearly 40 local crop farmers and custom harvesters to provide all the dairy’s forage needs.

Results: Benefits to the farm, community and environment include:

• higher quality feed.
• 11,000 acres under a single nutrient-management plan.
• lower cost and emissions associated with manufacturing and transport of fertilizer.
• more efficient crop production.
• more precise fertilizer application.

Werkhoven Dairy, Monroe, Wash. – The dairy developed a collaborative partnership between its farm and the neighboring dairy and beef producers of the Sno/Sky Ag Alliance, the Northwest Chinook Recovery (an organization working to restore salmon habitat), and the 3,500-member Native American Tulalip Tribe, forming a nonprofit organization that operates an anaerobic digester system.

Results: The organization:

• creates enough energy each day to produce electricity for 300 homes while keeping the air and water clean and protecting salmon streams.
• produces enough Grade A compost for Werkhoven Dairy to naturally fertilize its fields and share with its neighbors.

The author is Editor of QA magazine. She can be reached at llupo@gie.net.