Managing
Getting to Work on Supply-Chain Sustainability:
Stonyfield Farm’s Efforts to Green Its Own Supply Chain and All of Corporate America, Too
By Mark Vasu
“We are all at the starting gate,” said
Nancy Hirshberg, vice president
of natural resources at Stonyfield
Farm, commenting on the pace of progress
toward being more sustainable businesses.
It is something one might not expect to
hear from a company 25 years into it.
In the late 1990s, Hirshberg and others
began asking a few questions about the environmental impact of their supply chain.
“What impact do our factories have on the
planet?” “What is our responsibility?” “What
can we control?”
“In regard to climate change, what we
found surprised us,” said Hirshberg. “We
thought our plant emissions would be the
highest, but our supply chain and distribution
system came out even higher. Our plant emissions ranked fourth in terms of our total emissions. Milk production was first, then
packaging, then distribution. So we went to
work on those issues.”
These were normal questions for a pioneer
of a food business that began in the 1980s as
an organic farm school that initially sold yogurt only to fund its educational programs. It
is the kind of query expected of a company
whose mission statement includes the founding principles of “commitment to environmental stewardship and to the development
of a sustainable agriculture system.”
According to Hirshberg, the questions
arose, in part, because new voluntary protocols were being issued on greenhouse gas
emissions (GHG) to help companies prepare
a greenhouse gas inventory based on fair accounting, standardized approaches and principles. The new protocol, known as the GHG
Protocol, was launched in 1998 by two leading
global environmental organizations. It was
based on the Kyoto Protocol, the first interna-
tional agreement (signed in 1997) to set binding targets for industrialized countries to reduce GHG emissions.
By 1999, Stonyfield Farm determined its
first-ever companywide carbon footprint
based on these protocols. Armed with baseline data, Stonyfield Farm reached out to its
suppliers to figure out new ways to reduce the
company’s footprint. The effort was aided by
strong, longstanding relationships across the
supply chain.
The Stonyfield Farm approach mirrors
that of other companies. Tim Greiner is the
managing principal of Pure Strategies, a leading sustainability consultancy in New England. His company worked on Stonyfield
Farm’s first carbon footprinting effort and
other sustainability issues with clients like Seventh Generation, Timberland and Oakhurst
Dairy. “The issue of supply-chain sustainability
involves alignment and communication,” says
Greiner about his client work. “It requires a
fair amount of coordination. Success starts
with communicating the commitment and
ideals of the business to suppliers, then moving into substantive issue areas.” Including a
CEO or other senior offical at the table is key,
he said.
What Drives Supply Chain Sustainability?
Supply-chain sustainability is driven by many
motivations including cost savings, brand perception benefits, alignment to corporate mission, product quality, and, of course, the
reduction of environmental impact. Actions
and tools to support these motivations vary by
industry and from company to company. To
get there, many companies have developed
their own proprietary scorecards with Tier 1
suppliers. In retail, Wal-Mart and other major
retailers are very focused on setting new sustainability standards, which is causing a big
