In 2003, I was at a PR firm in Chicago working on several food company accounts. That work required that I travel to Colorado on a regular basis. I loved Colorado. Open skies, big mountains, lots of sunshine. I loved it so much that I began looking for a new job. Outside of location, though, I had one requirement: the company needed to be honest about food and honest about its story. Then I read a profile about Horizon Organic.
An opportunity presented itself and before I knew it, I landed a job with Horizon, tasked with the responsibility of helping tell the company’s story. I was thrilled, and quickly came to find out that people across the company shared a common desire to do better, and in Horizon’s case that was to change the world one organic acre at a time. I loved talking to the press, who at the time felt we could do no wrong – vocal advocate for organic agriculture, proponent for the humane treatment of animals, partner to family farmers, champion for healthy foods for kids. Anyway you sliced it our story was positive and it felt good to tell.
During that time Horizon was owned by Dean Foods, a parent company that had a pretty hands off approach to its individual divisions – at least that’s what it felt like where I sat. About a year later, Dean decided to merge Horizon with some other national Dean brands (International Delight) and also with WhiteWave Inc. (makers of Silk Soymilk). At that point WhiteWave Foods was born. During that process the spotlight was on us and all of a sudden we were now “Big”. I’d worked with “Big” food companies before, and seen first-hand the negative association. Admittedly, that made me a little nervous. But looking back, it’s interesting to see that since then our story hasn’t only evolved it’s gotten better. And a lot of it has to do with being “Big”, combined with what we learned when we were “Small”. Balancing the two has been one of the most interesting, challenging and energizing aspects of my career.
Back then, Silk purchased renewable energy certificates to offset the electricity used in the production of the product. And now our Horizon, International Delight brands and WhiteWave’s corporate headquarters have followed suit – all now purchase renewable energy certificates and carbon offsets to help balance the electricity usage and emissions created by doing business.
Back then, Silk and Horizon offered recycling programs in the buildings in which they were housed. At WhiteWave we take that to another level by partnering with Eco-Cycle and A1Organics to institute a state-of-the-art Zero Waste Recycling and Composting Program at our Broomfield headquarters. (From recycling and composting alone, we’ve diverted more than 386,000 pounds of waste from landfills to date.)
Back then, recycling and the impact of our carbon footprint was not top of mind for our manufacturing facilities. Today, our plants reduce their impact on the environment. Take our Bridgeton, New Jersey, location – in 2008 that plant reduced its annual waste by 21 percent. Another example took place last year when our plant in City of Industry, Calif., conducted a water audit. As a result of the findings, the team implemented several water saving measures that will save more than 11 million gallons of water annually.
These are just a few examples. It’s not all we’ve done, but it gives you an idea of what we’re about and how things started changing once WhiteWave was created. Can we do better? Absolutely. I’m proud to work for a company that struggles with the issues we have – from where we procure our ingredients to how we transport our products to the packages in which we sell them. The discussions we have across this company continue to energize me. I love that we struggle to find the “and” as we like to say. How can we be a profitable business AND do what’s right for the planet? We don’t get it right all the time, but we’re constantly challenging ourselves. That’s a story I can get behind.
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