"For this to be meaningful for your organization—for climate action to matter—you must look at your entire system. It's simply inadequate to look only within your four walls; you've got to incorporate the supply chain, too."
—Renauld des Rosiers, Amy's Kitchen
Part 1: Materiality and buy-in
Highlights:
- There's no perfect formula to follow: It's as unique as your company's DNA.
- Figure out what's important vs. what's realistic, and what could have the biggest impact.
- Agriculture can be a great option to help mitigate climate change because of the huge ability of soil to build and retain carbon.
- Discover the nine commitment areas for The Climate Collaborative, and use these as a foundation for building your climate action plan.
- You need a climate champion to keep this going and drive it through your company.
-----
Part 2: Amy's Kitchen—a recipe for sustainability
Highlights:
- Leverage your partnerships, especially when you have small departments and limited resources.
- Some 70 percent to 95 percent of value chain emissions are outside of a company's four walls; you have less control but your level of impact is potentially higher.
- Peer collaboration: STFA, OSC2, the Climate Collaborative and Sustainable Packaging Coalition are just a few of the groups out there to support your efforts.
- Third-party certification is a really good way to go in terms of making it real and concrete (e.g., True from GBCI, RE100, Science Based Targets, USDA Organic and more.
- Learn the barriers to climate action and how to overcome them.
-----
Part 3: Farm to yum—our food choices matter
Highlights:
- The food system now contributes to one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions; we're part of the problem but also part of the solution.
- Several life cycle assessments (LCAs) revealed the biggest opportunities lie in the agriculture space, specifically in the supply chain. Annie's has a Code of Conduct for manufacturers and a Green Bernie award for top-performing suppliers.
- Grassroots education on packaging raises consumer awareness around issues such as organic.
- Lead by example: LEED Gold certified HQ, Bay Area Green Business certification, 100 percent Energy Star laptops.
- Annie's tracks everything: energy, waste and water use; roughly 81 percent of office waste is now diverted from the landfill.
-----
Part 4: Climate mitigation conversion—the low-hanging fruit
Highlights:
- Amy's moved to an automated case-packing system, resulting in 15 percent less outer case material used.
- Long-term, Amy's is committed to R&D for "a product that doesn't yet exist:" renewable materials, made from plants, recycled back into the soil.
- For the first time ever, dinosaurs are not cool when it comes to plastic packaging.
- Annie's has a different perspective, focused on education: find "a green hero" who's willing to take on the effort to engage your workforce.
- Financial savings can be one incentive for people, but you really need to engage your employees to see the value of sustainability.
- Size of sustainability teams and how to work with limited resources.
- The WIIFM factor: What's in it for me?
- Tracking trash in the supply chain.
This session—Climate 101: The Building Blocks of Climate Actions for Your Company—was recorded at Natural Products Expo West 2018.
0 comments
Hide comments
