were in relation to the aspirations laid out in the Declaration. From
there we developed a road map to guide us in our sustainability
initiatives. Again, using the climate change category as an example, we
looked at the greenhouse gas emissions from our operations and then
researching these options with our
partners, these were not the most ef-
fective paths to take. Instead, after we
found out what was using the most
energy, we decided that the major
area to focus on was improving the ef-
ficiency our baking ovens and we
went to work to find a better solution.
with the help of a few external partners, we identified ways to reduce
our impact. These partners included the University of Washington and
Washington State University which, like many universities, offer a free
industrial assessment program, where masters level engineering students do a walk-through and set up monitoring in order to determine
the best options to improve energy efficiency. We explored the idea of
a solar water heater for the boiler, as well as a bio-gas project that
would use the nutrients in our waste water to create energy. But, after
The Importance of Measurement
The information we found by
monitoring certain metrics helped us
determine where we could make the
most impact. As the old business
adage goes: “You can’t manage what
you don’t measure.” I’ll add to this
that it’s just as important to manage
how you measure and how you choose
what to measure.
Measuring progress and capturing
data is not as simple as it sounds. Natalie Reitman-White, executive director of the Food Trade Sustainability
Leadership Association (FTSLA) says,
