Consumer Goods Technology - July/August 2010

more than 30,000 locations and nearly seven million people signed up to collect waste across the United States. The program has been so successful that it’s expanded internationally to the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico and Brazil, and there’s more in the works.

SUCCESS STORY #3
Agricultural
Commodities

*For agricultural commodities, sustainability starts at the farm. That’s why Kraft Foods supports sustainable agricultural programs for key commodities such as cocoa, wheat, coffee and cashews. These programs help increase productivity and yield at the farm level.

For example, in 2003, Kraft Foods started collaborating with the

Rainforest Alliance (www.rainforest-

alliance.org), an

international nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of tropical forests.

“They weren’t the biggest name
around, but they had the knowledge
and the people in the field to help
ensure we’d have a high quality sup-
ply of coffee and cocoa for years to
come,” says Yucknut. “And over the
years, we’ve built scale and com-
petitive advantage.”
By 2009, Kraft Foods became the
largest buyer of coffee and cocoa
from Rainforest Alliance Certified
farms, purchasing more than 34,000
metric tons of coffee and 7,100 met-
ric tons of cocoa. What’s more, in
the last six years, Kraft Foods’ col-
laboration with the Rainforest
Alliance for coffee has benefited
more than 300,000 farm workers and
their dependents on more than
60,000 hectares of farmland in trop-
ical countries. And for cocoa, the
collaboration has benefited 27,500
members of farming families on
more than 16,000 hectares under
sustainable production.

Green from the Start: Kraft Foods’ collaboration with the
Rainforest Alliance for coffee has benefited more than 300,000
farm workers and their dependents.

COVER STORY

“Sustainability is a journey and that is particularly true when it comes to increasing the sustainable nature of our agricultural commodities,” admits Yucknut. “Investments in sustainable agriculture take time to mature. Changing behaviors and procedures at the farm level requires perseverance and patience. And most importantly, it takes a long term commitment from the business teams making the upfront investments for down the road payback. In the world of ‘what have you done for me lately?’ and ‘how did you do last quarter?’, that is not something to be taken lightly.”

SUCCESS STORY #4

Greener Offices

*Kraft Foods’ greener offices are inspiring employees to think and act differently at work. Around the world, it has done the basics — reducing the environmental impact of office buildings by installing motion-activated lighting and more efficient plumbing fixtures. The company is also adapt-

A Cool Operation: Kraft
Foods’ Northfield, Ill.
headquarters is cooled
by ice. Recycled water is
frozen and fans circulate
the resulting cool air.

ing buildings with wireless tools so employees can work from home or other locales, which saves energy commuting and lessens the need for office space.

The company’s Northfield, Ill. headquarters recently became ENERGY STAR qualified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It’s in the top 8 percent of commercial buildings in the country for energy efficiency and uses 33 percent less energy than similar commercial buildings. That means it’s less expensive to operate and emits fewer greenhouse gases than its peers.

The campus is surrounded by green space and walking trails for employees, and three lakes on site capture rainwater for reuse to handle half of the property’s irrigation needs. The building is even cooled by ice.