Meat + Poultry - August 2009 - 27

That's how you have to think about
sustainability. It's one thing to reduce
the power consumption of a processing
plant by, say, 10 percent, but it's quite
another to make a product that needs
fewer resources, and uses renewable
resources, from start to finish."
The center's vision is to create a sustainable global consumer goods economy, according to its Web site (www.asc.
uark.edu). Its mission statement reads:
"We lead organizations in the retail and
consumer goods industries toward sustainable practices that support an economy built around people, planet and
profit. We accomplish this by solving
complex problems, providing expert
guidance, brokering problems and solutions, and by sponsoring research."
It offers assessments of the life-cycles
of products, performs research, and its
"carbon innovation lab" finds ways to
reduce the carbon footprint of various
kinds of manufacturing.

very good time for companies to remake themselves to fit a sustainable
model: with no hard and fast rules,
companies can improvise and innovate
to suit their own needs. Johnson will
describe guidelines for sustainability in
the food industry when he addresses
the Sustainability Summit. '"Exactly'
is not a word I use," he admits. "The
concept of sustainability must itself be
sustainable, which means that it's always open to new ideas and information." At the same time, the hard data
gathered by Wal-Mart on the life-cycle
of the products it sells will establish a
kind of "library of sustainability" that
companies can draw from.

First in
Sanitary
Design,
Reliability
and Value

Steve Bjerklie is M&P's East Coast correspondent,
based in Franconia, N.H. He has worked as a journalist covering the meat and poultry processing industry
for more than 25 years.
We would like to hear from you - to comment
on this story or to request reprints, contact us by
e-mail at: meatpoultry@sosland.com.

BUILT

USA

A head start
The meat and poultry industry has
practiced sustainability, at least to a
degree, without really knowing it. The
business likes to pat itself on the back
for making use of every part of an animal "except the oink and the moo" -
but it's true. There's remarkably little
waste from processed livestock. On
the other hand, the meat manufacturing process itself can generate considerable waste - water, cardboard and
heat, for example. Some of this is fairly easily recycled, Johnson notes, but
not all of it. "Often, the easiest thing
to do is to start with the environmental factors, but when you start talking
about limiting greenhouse gases and
reducing water use, it becomes more
difficult. But this is what sustainability is all about. You're talking about
resource use and consumption that's
sustainable in a very literal way. You
do not take out more from the system
than you put in."
He says there are currently more
questions about sustainability than
answers - but that's exactly why it's a

2009

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Sustainability
Summit

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Sponsored by MEAT&POULTRY, the
2009 Sustainability Summit is being presented in conjunction with the American
Meat Institute's Worldwide Food Expo,
held at Chicago's McCormick Place Oct.
28-31. Dr. Jon Johnson is scheduled to
make a presentation at the event and
discuss his work with Tyson Foods, WalMart and other companies. Prior to the
show floor opening each day, attendees
are invited to attend educational sessions focusing on sustainability for three
consecutive mornings, Oct. 28-30, from
8-11 a.m. All WWFE attendees are invited to sit in on these thought-provoking
presentations.
Attendance is included in the registration fee for the WWFE. For more information on the Sustainability Summit,
go to www.worldwidefood.com.
www.MEATPOULTRY.com

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BETTER P A C K A G I N G

August 2009

MEAT&POULTRY

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http://www.asc http://www.uark.edu http://www.worldwidefood.com http://www.MEATPOULTRY.com http://www.multivac.com

Meat + Poultry - August 2009

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