2Sustain

Building on its agricultural roots and ongoing commitment to support the communities in which it operates, Del Monte Foods recently announced formalized environmental sustainability goals.

The company says it has heightened its focus on three specific areas: reducing waste, lowering water consumption and improving air quality.

For instance, Del Monte has committed to a 75 percent reduction in the amount of waste it sends to landfills (compared to a 2007 baseline), and the company wants to meet this goal by 2016. Both the Milk-Bone plant in Buffalo, New York, and the Del Monte Foods Distribution Center in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania are already zero-landfill facilities, meaning that 100 percent of their waste has been diverted from landfill. As a result of these and other efforts, Del Monte has reduced its waste to landfill by almost 70 percent, and so it appears the company is well on its way to achieving its goal.

In addition, Del Monte has committed to:

• a 15 percent reduction in packaging materials.

• a 20 percent reduction in fresh water usage per ton of finished product.

• a 10 percent reduction in GHG emissions per ton of finished product from manufacturing, warehousing and research development facilities.

• a 7 percent reduction in total GHG emissions through improved efficiency in Del Monte’s transportation network.

Del Monte says it wants to achieve or exceed these goals by the year 2016, using 2007 as a baseline.

As I posted about earlier this week, global corporations are becoming increasingly aware that they can gain competitive advantage and improve business value by integrating sustainability into their core business strategy. Kudos to Del Monte for establishing these clear goals and also for committing to report regularly on their progress towards achieving them.

You can read more about Del Monte’s environmental goals here.