Industry is Reducing its Ecological Footprint

Shearer’s diverted more than 24 million pounds of waste from the landfill.
Image Credit: SHEARER’S SNACKS

By the way, Earth Day, April 22, is a big deal for Shearer’s Snacks.

“Associates at many of the factories will provide park cleaning efforts on this day,” Schwerdtfeger says. “Additionally management provides a green gift, an energy efficient light bulb, for a green idea submitted by associates. Some of the factories have provided tree seedlings to employees to plant at home and others even provide a sustainable garden onsite for them to grow crops.”

To further honor Earth Day, Schwerdtfeger shares company milestones with all the Shearer’s associates. In 2015 he proudly shared these: “In the past year, our recycling efforts generated over $2 million of positive impact to the company,” Schwerdtfeger boasts. “We avoided more than 24 million pounds of waste that normally would have gone to landfills. Six of our factories are considered zero waste facilities. We had over $600,000 last year in utility savings. In natural gas and electric we saved approximately the equivalent of planting 53,000 trees, eliminating 450 cars, and heating 300 homes for the year. And we saved roughly enough water last year to fill 46 Olympic size swimming pools.”

Lamb Weston: Something Sweet

Jan. 20, 2011 was a sweet day for Lamb Weston’s processing facility in Delhi, La. That’s when the Delhi operation reportedly became the first frozen food manufacturing plant in the world to earn LEED Platinum certification.

The plant primarily processes sweet potatoes from Louisiana and the surrounding states, which are prime sweet potato-growing regions. “We produce many different frozen retail and restaurant products,” says Rick Martin, Lamb Weston’s vice president for manufacturing. Operations at the Delhi plant began in September 2010.

A brand of ConAgra Foods, Inc., the Kennewick, Wash.-based Lamb Weston is an international supplier of frozen potato, sweet potato, appetizer, and other vegetable products, serving both the food service and retail industries around the globe. Lamb Weston maintains 16 manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Canada, and China.

Built from the ground up using the newest and best processing and packaging technologies, the state-of-the art equipment featured in the 164,000 ft.²– Delhi plant was uniquely designed to process sweet potatoes in the most efficient and environmentally responsible way, all geared for long-term, economic sustainability, Martin says.

“We believe the plant’s unique design provides positive environmental and economic benefits to the local community, including water conservation and energy efficiency,” he elaborates. “For Lamb Weston, efficient operations mean more efficient use of natural resources within the community, including energy and water.”

Martin says the company’s 10 years of experience with producing quality sweet potato products allowed the Lamb Weston team to bring the best of what they had learned to the design and construction of the Delhi plant, which is located in the northeastern part of the Pelican State.

Project partners included Fisher & Sons Design/Build, a leading design and construction firm with expertise in the food industry based in Burlington, Wash., and Paladino and Company, a Seattle, Wash.-based sustainability and green building consulting firm at the forefront of the green building movement.

“From the beginning, LEED was used as a back check to validate the sustainable strategies implemented during design and construction,” Martin says. “To earn the distinction as the first LEED Platinum frozen food manufacturing plant in the world reflects the entire project team’s hard work and ConAgra Foods’ investment in innovation and excellence. The Platinum rating is the positive outcome of our team’s focus on balancing the project’s impacts to the planet, employees and the community, and Lamb Weston’s bottom line.”