Seeding Sustainability at General Mills

BY JERRY LYNCH At General Mills, going green has included establishing a comprehensive set of global environmental sustainability goals. Photo © GettyImages/Vetta/Thomas Vogel pg 34 07.12 • www.ift.org When the nation’s sixth-largest food company set an ambitious agenda for operating sustainably, the environmental impact was dramatic and the savings substantial. Here’s a look at the progress General Mills has made—and a preview of what’s ahead. hether it’s washing glass jars more efficiently achieve the following goals: in Hannibal, Mo., recycling paperboard in • Reduce the rate of water use by 20%, Albuquerque, N.M., or composting food scraps • Reduce solid waste generation by 50%, Wat the corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, • Reduce energy usage by 20%, Minn., General Mills’ practices and policies are informed by • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, a broad-based and ongoing commitment to sustainability. • Reduce the amount of transportation fuel In fact, the company’s commitment to sustainabil- used to ship a pound of product by 35%, and ity dates back decades. As early as the 1930s, General • Improve 40% of its packaging volume (with improve- Mills was using recycled paperboard packaging, and the ment assessed on the basis of company-set indicators). Green Giant Brand was using crop rotation practices. The company is already more than half- This foundation has evolved into integrating environmen- way toward achieving its 2015 global sustainability tal sustainability initiatives into other areas of business. goals on water, solid waste, and packaging. Today, General Mills is working toward its aggres- “And we continue to drive down our energy consump- sive 2015 sustainability targets through multifaceted tion, greenhouse gas emissions, and use of transportation environmental efforts, which range from energy meter fuel,” says Larry Deeney, Environmental Sustainability installations to water use reduction projects, from oat Director, General Mills. “Between fiscal 2010 and fis- hull energy conversion to packaging improvements. cal 2011, General Mills reduced the amount of solid “The definition of sustainability sets a very clear objective waste generated by 7,000 metric tons, cut water usage for us,” says Ken Powell, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, by more than 550,000 cubic meters, lowered green- General Mills. Sustainability means “meeting the needs of house gas emissions by 10,000 metric tons, and reduced the current generation without compromising the ability of total energy use by nearly 50 million kilowatt hours.” future generations to meet their needs,” Powell continues. General Mills works continuously to improve envi- “As the world’s sixth-largest food company, we under- ronmental performance and further incorporate stand that a small action on our part can have a big impact sustainable strategies, processes, and products through- elsewhere. We want that impact to be a positive one. The out its operations as the examples that follow illustrate. General Mills environmental mission is to protect and conserve the natural resource base on which its business Conserving Water depends. We build consumer loyalty, societal trust, and According to The Nature Conservancy, by 2050, more shareholder value by integrating sustainability into our strat- than half of the world’s population is expected to live in egies, our operations, and our products,” says Powell. areas of high water stress. To help mitigate the effect of impending water scarcity, General Mills is committed to Progress Toward 2015 Sustainability Goals reducing its water usage, and the company is more than Since 2005, General Mills has set global environmental halfway to reaching its 20% reduction goal, recently report- sustainability goals in the areas of water, energy, green- ing an 11% reduction measured from a 2006 baseline. house gases, and solid waste. In 2010, the company In Irapuato, Mexico, General Mills is encouraging water established new, more aggressive goals including a North conservation by working with contract farmers, who are American transportation goal and a packaging metric. using drip irrigation to grow vegetables for the Green Giant By 2015, General Mills aims to brand. By allowing water to slowly drip to the root of plants, 07.12 • www.ift.org 35 pg Seeding Sustainability at General Mills Drip irrigation practices are in place on more than carbon footprint. The new Cheerios 40% of the acreage farmed by General Mills contract boxes began appearing on club farmers in Irapuato, Mexico, where vegetables for the Green Giant brand are grown. store shelves in February 2012. Photo courtesy of General Mills Managing Solid Waste According to the U.S. post-consumer recycled paper Environmental Protection Agency, packaging in the United States and Americans produced about 250 mil- continues to bring innovative pack- lion tons of solid waste in 2011, and aging solutions to the marketplace. approximately half of this waste is The company set its first packag- disposed in landfills. General Mills ing goal in 2010 and has improved is actively pursuing opportunities 27% of packaging volume, put- to recycle and find new uses for ting the company two-thirds of the unwanted by-products or materi- way toward its 40% goal. Four key als. As noted in the 2012 Global indicators are used to assess improve- Responsibility Report, General ment: packaging weight; recycled Mills has achieved a 34% reduction content and recyclability; renewable in its solid waste generation rate. content and the ability to com- The most effective strategy is post; and truck-loading efficiency. to limit the amount of waste cre- General Mills recently developed ated in the first place. General Mills a new proprietary cereal packaging spends a lot of time, via its Holistic drip irrigation consumes only half technology that allows for packing Margin Management initiative and the water of conventional furrow cereal more densely. The technol- Continuous Improvement efforts, irrigation, generating an estimated ogy allows the cereal to settle on to identify and, more importantly, savings of 1.1 billion gallons of water the line, which means that each box remove waste from its operations. annually. To help farmers adopt this can be filled with 10% more cereal A facility in Albuquerque is cur- practice, General Mills has provided and packaging size can be reduced. rently recycling 90% of its output. them with interest-free loans to pur- This saves more than 200,000 Team members there worked with chase equipment. Drip irrigation pounds of paperboard each year. local recyclers to expand the plant’s practices are now in place in about Plus, the smaller packaging foot- recycling program to include cor- 43% of the acreage used by General print means more boxes can fit on rugated boxes and also carton cores, Mills contract farmers in this region. each truck. This will reduce truck- sacks, and other items that typically An employee-led initia- ing needs by 10% annually, saving get tossed out. The arrangement tive at the General Mills plant in fuel and reducing the company’s has enabled the plant to reduce Hannibal, Mo., has simplified the trash pick-ups, generate $2,500 per mechanics behind the glass jar month in recycling revenue, and washing process on the Old El shrink landfill output by 80%. Paso sauce line. This improve- General Mills recently ment saves an estimated 1.5 installed a new system at million gallons of water per its Wellston, Ohio, facility, year and 1,000 million BTUs which heats pizza top- of energy to heat that water. pings so they will adhere better to the pizza prior Reducing Packaging to the freezing process. General Mills’ long legacy This system will save thou- of environmentally friendly sands of pounds of cheese packaging has served the and other pizza toppings company—and the planet— from going to waste each well. Today General Mills is year, an estimated annual among the largest users of cost saving of $200,000. And on the Technology that allows General Mills to pack its Minneapolis campus, an cereal more densely has translated to savings of organics recycling pro- 200,000 pounds of paperboard annually. gram collects food waste Photo courtesy of General Mills from the employee pg 36 07.12 • www.ift.org Seeding Sustainability at General Mills General Mills works continuously to improve environmental performance and further incorporate sustainable strategies, processes, and products. commercial energy use accounts for nearly 30% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. As a leading food company and a participant in the Carbon Disclosure Project, General Mills is committed to implementing new systems and procedures that will reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emission rate, and is just under halfway to its goal of a 20% reduction. With guidance from General Mills, more and more farmers from central Mexico are using organic compost from nearby chicken farms—instead of synthetic fer- tilizer—to spread on broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and celery. The switch is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12,000 A General Mills facility in Albuquerque has expanded its recycling program to the point where it is recycling tons per year, the equivalent of 90% of its output. Photo courtesy of General Mills taking 2,000 cars off the road. General Mills is producing energy from oat hulls left over from cafeteria, Betty Crocker Kitchens, electricity to supply 55% of its the milling process at its Fridley, and Bakeries & Foodservice annual electricity needs—80% of Minn., facility, which makes oat flour Culinary Center and turns it into its consumption in the summer and used in Cheerios and other products. compost. Two tons of food waste 40% during the rest of the year. The biomass burner produces 90% is composted every week. of the steam needed to manufacture Cutting Down on Greenhouse Gases oat flour, reducing the plant’s car- Saving Energy According to the U.S.

Load more