Baking & Snack - November 2009 - 12

R&D PERSPECTIVE | THERESA COGSWELL

Going

Green

Use these practical tips to implement a sustainability program for your company.

he cover story in the Sept. 28 issue of Newsweek magazine is "The
Greenest BIG Companies in America." What is the difference between
going green, sustainability and your carbon footprint, and what can you do to get
in the game?
If your company has made a decision
to go green, it is making a move toward
sustainability. Sustainability development,
according to Wikipedia, is a pattern of
resource use that aims to meet human
needs while preserving the environment
for today as well as for future generations.
Once a company has efficiently maximized
its sustainability efforts, it can contribute to
a lighter carbon, or ecological, footprint.
According to the Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC), a company that
decides to go green should:
1) Develop an organization-wide
environmental policy.
2) Develop an environmentally
preferable purchasing policy.
3) Create environmental language
contracts.
4) Communicate environmental
initiatives to the public.
5) Involve staff at all levels (and do not
forget to train employees).
6) Put together a sustainability report.
Getting started is the most difficult part
of any new project. Start by picking the areas that can make the largest impact with
the smallest amount of effort - the lowhanging fruit, if you will. For this scenario,
let's look at energy, paper and water for a
research and development lab.
ENERGY. For many of us, the computer is
the central work tool. Optimizing the energy settings for computers, sleep mode and
other devices can be more than a modest
energy saver. By plugging hardware into a

BAKING & SNACK / November 2009

power strip with an on/off switch, the whole
desktop can be turned off at once at the end
of the day. Many appliances have "standby"
settings that draw power - sometimes
as much as 15 or 20 watts - even when
they are turned off. An on/off power strip
will help eliminate low power mode usage. When electronics need to be replaced,
ensure that the new items are labeled with
the Energy Star designation, which certifies
office equipment and appliances are optimized for energy efficiency.
In your laboratory offices and work
areas, install sensors to automatically turn
off lights when no one is in the room. When
possible, install skylights to use natural
lighting. Replace existing lighting with
high-efficiency light bulbs. Exceptions to
this approach may be in the areas where
natural lighting is needed for product scoring or taste-panel evaluations.
PAPER. If you are a paper pusher, it is time
to break the habit. Do not print e-mail
messages unless necessary. Put the phrase:
"Don't print this e-mail unless you really
need to," at the bottom of all messages so
recipients think twice before hitting the
print button. On printers and copiers, set
the default to double-sided printing.
Periodicals can typically be viewed online. Only sign up for the printed version, if
you like to read magazines while traveling.
In restrooms, use hand drying units to
reduce paper towel use. Cloth towels can be
rented through your uniform service and
laundered each week for use in the laboratory. Provide each employee with a reusable
mug for their daily coffee. Encourage employees to use a refillable drink bottle rather
than a paper cup or bottled water.
According to the NRDC, a typical office
disposes of about 350 lb of wastepaper per
year. If the first-year goal is to reduce paper

waste by 10% and your R&D center employs 30 people, that reduces your annual
refuge by 1,050 lb. It is a start. And if you
are not throwing the paper away, then you
probably aren't buying it in the first place.
WATER. Begin by having enough utensils,
equipment and pans to use throughout the
day. Stopping to wash utensils throughout the day will waste time and water. Use
the scrape-and-wash method for cleaning
equipment rather than rinse-and-wash,
so not to wash batter or dough down the
drain. Bake off the extra dough or batter on a sheet pan in the oven to kill the
leavening activity. This will allow you to
collect organic materials and send it for
use as animal feed. A Sept. 22 article on
www.just-food.com "Sara Lee Reduces
Global Water Usage" can be found at www.
just-food.com/article.aspx?id=108117. The
article reports that Sara Lee has cut its water usage by more than 20% in the past four
years as part of the food group's aim of reducing the water it uses worldwide. The reduction was achieved by conducting water
audits, performing preventive maintenance
on boilers and cooling towers and implanting dry clean-up techniques. View Sara
Lee's sustainability program at www.saralee.
com/AboutSaraLee/Sustainability.aspx.
With all these ways to go green, how
did the food and retail industry fare in the
Newsweek article? Consumer packaged
goods companies HJ Heinz and General
Mills were No. 90 and 96, respectively. The
food retailers fared better, with Starbucks
coming in at No. 10, McDonalds at No. 22
and Wal-Mart at No. 59.
If you plan to send this article on to a
coworker, send them the link instead of
printing it. It may seem like a small thing,
but remember that a long journey starts
with the first step.
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http://www.just-food.com http://www.just-food.com/article.aspx?id=108117 http://www.saralee

Baking & Snack - November 2009

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