Sustainability for the Long Haul

Kraft recycles nearly 90% of its global manufacturing waste by turning it into energy and finding other companies that can use the waste. In the United States, Kraft has been partnering with Sonoco for several years on plant-waste reduction and now has a number of plants that are “zero waste to landfill,” said Steve Yucknut, MBA, vice president for sustainability at Kraft, in an e-mail to Food Quality.

“We’ve shown steady progress against our 2011 goals,” Yucknut said. From 2005 through 2009, he said Kraft had achieved the following:

• eliminated 174 million pounds of packaging materials, exceeding its 150 million-pound goal two years early;
• reduced plant energy use by 15% (toward a goal of 25%);
• cut plant energy-related carbon dioxide emissions by 17% (toward a goal of 25%);
• reduced plant water consumption by 32% (far exceeding the goal of 15%); and,
• reduced plant waste by 30 % (double the goal of 15%).

The successes come with a broad-based vision to make sustainability part of every business decision, Yucknut said. “It’s a priority across our organization, including general management, marketing, operations, and R&D. It’s a priority from the senior-most levels on down,” he said, adding that each business unit has goals, road maps, and projects to which it is held accountable. “This also applies to manufacturing. Now, each plant has water, waste, and energy-reduction goals and environmental improvement plans.”

One example he cites is Kraft’s Kenco Coffee Company in the United Kingdom, where 100% of the coffee beans come from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and the manufacturing plant burns spent coffee grounds to supply 85% of its electricity needs.

Setting Sustainability Goals

Like Kraft and other food manufacturers, Hormel Foods Corporation has set its own environmental sustainability goals, and in April the company said it had made significant progress toward them. Like a growing number of companies, Hormel also issues an annual corporate responsibility report.

Thomas Raymond, Hormel’s director of environmental sustainability, noted that the company reduced water use by more than 447 million gallons in 2009 compared to 2008 at its U.S. manufacturing operations and reduced total water use by more than 590 million gallons, or 9%, over the past three years. Its U.S. operations also sent 7,275 fewer tons of solid waste to landfills in 2009 compared to 2008. The company has reduced the amount of solid waste sent to landfill by 16% over the past three years.

In April, the company said that for the first time it is reporting environmental information as normalized for production. “Accounting for production levels allows us to benchmark and track our improvements and efficiencies,” Raymond said at the time. “Last year, the two areas where we excelled were in reducing water use and the amount of solid waste sent to landfills. An area we are heavily focusing on this year is the amount of energy we use on an annual basis. By publicly showing year-over-year trending data, we closely monitor each area and work to ensure we are hitting our targets,” he told Food Quality magazine. The company also developed an internal data management system. Return on investment comes from increased measurement and communication at the plant operating level, he said.

For example, Raymond attributed the water reduction to employee education and capital improvement projects. With Burke Marketing Corporation, Hormel conducted a plant-wide study in 2009 to evaluate water reduction possibilities, which resulted in 12 million gallons of annual water savings. “We implemented a variety of projects, including adding new water meters to quantify department usage; level controls were added to ovens, nozzles were changed to sprays and sanitation hoses, and control valves were installed. In addition, educational programs were implemented for all employees to increase individual awareness levels.”