Food processors find that sustainability cuts costs
Contact Information:Dr. Justin Morris, Department of Food Science
479-575-4040 / jumorris@uark.edu
By Dave Edmark, Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station
479-575-5647 / dedmark@uark.edu
SPRINGDALE, Ark. – Sustainability is more than just a new environmental buzz word. It’s becoming a popular way for businesses to have a positive impact on their financial statements as well as on the world around them, speakers told the Ozark Food Processors Association on March 26 during its 102nd annual convention.
“Sustainability involves the reduction of operating costs,” said Earl Wells, vice president for science and technology at Allens, Inc., and OFPA president. “We’re dependent on the environment and we’re trying to protect it and grow in it.”
Transportation services, on which food processors depend, have a difficult time achieving sustainability, said Gary Whicker, senior vice president of engineering services at J.B. Hunt Transportation Services. That makes the industry’s effort aimed largely at trying “to be less non-sustainable.”
That’s a challenge for an industry that “is nearly 100 percent petroleum based,” Whicker said, but he had a list of ways around it.
Transporters can eliminate miles by realigning their networks and can be more energy efficient by increasing their payloads. Intermodal transportation options should also be explored, Whicker said, noting that water is most energy efficient followed by rail, truck and air. Whicker said one Arkansas company reduced its carbon emissions by 31 percent after switching from all-truck transportation to intermodal systems.
Whicker said food processors and other industries can determine the energy efficiency levels of transportation providers that participate in the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay Transport Partnership. EPA describes SmartWay (http://www.epa.gov/smartway) as a voluntary partnership between various freight industry sectors and EPA that establishes incentives for fuel efficiency improvements and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. By 2012, the initiative aims to reduce between 33 million and 66 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions and up to 200,000 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions per year.
While industry looks for ways to incorporate sustainable practices, consumers continue to embrace them. Half the population reports that it engages in some sustainability-linked behavior, said Jay Billings, marketing manager of Ball Corp. Thirty-four percent are more involved in sustainability than they were a year earlier.
Billings said consumers who were interviewed by Ball expressed “a heightened level of concern regarding the environment.”
Recycling is the “most engaging behavior” that consumers reported, Billings said. “Consumers want to recycle. Practicing it is easy.”
Consumer reaction to food cans is mixed because of misinformation, he said. Consumers want to recycle the cans, but many believe that the labels must be peeled off first, which inhibits them. “Limited knowledge translates into suspicion,” Billings noted, adding that steel cans still have the highest recycling rate of all food packaging with 63.4 percent of them being recycled in 2006.
The OFPA convention opened with its annual golf tournament held at Shadow Valley Country Club in Rogers. Sixty-eight golfers played in the event with proceeds benefiting the OFPA scholarship fund.
The second day's activities included educational sessions, sponsored by Allens Inc., followed by a comprehensive regional food processing exposition.
The OFPA Exposition this year attracted 76 exhibitors with 424 people attending. OFPA scholarship winners, all U of A food science students, were recognized at a luncheon. Scholarships sponsored by OFPA and its members were awarded to 14 students.
News releases and photos are available online at http://www.arkansasagnews..uark.edu/392.htm