Sustainability with Staying Power

The latest buzz is all about sustainability in consumer goods, including food and beverages. The definition remains a bit fuzzy, but distilled down, according to the United Nations, it involves a combination of economic, social and environmental factors to “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

While in food and agriculture, the organic movement seems to have co-opted the message, with a “if it’s not organic, it’s not sustainable” assertion, it really doesn’t have to be all about organics. (And some might argue that if using the aforementioned definition, organic agriculture alone is not sustainable because it doesn’t meet our present needs and may not fulfill those of the future in terms of food production and economics.)

In fact, any company can and should adopt sustainable practices. Why? Although all the altruistic reasons should be enough, given human nature, they rarely are. Luckily there are two additional compelling reasons: market needs and economics.

Market-research firm Packaged Facts just announced a series of reports it developed along with The Hartman Group that address the “Consumer and Sustainability.” The company notes that “as consumers become more educated about the environmental, social, and economic implications of food and beverage choices, their health and wellness motivations dovetail with larger societal concerns. A close relationship develops between sustainability and emerging definitions of food quality, as consumers use sustainable attributes to infer food quality, and food quality to infer sustainability.”

Beyond marketing and helping the environment, many sustainable practices focus on reduced waste. And when you reduce waste, you almost invariably increase cost savings, whether it’s from using less of something or paying less to dispose of it (since it’s no longer acceptable just to flush everything down the sewer or bury it in the back forty.) Two of the most pressing areas for our industry are water—given its scarcity in some parts of both the world and the United States—and packaging—given we use so much of it and we probably still have yogurt containers and bread bags from 1982 pretty much intact in our landfills.

If you don’t think the idea is catching on with consumers, check out how many are bringing a reusable bag or two to the grocery these days. It can save bags from the landfill and save the grocer a few dollars since an average grocer spends $30,000 to $60,000 annually on checkout bags. If you haven’t already started, it’s time to look at sustainability and reap the rewards, monetary and otherwise. This is one “fad” that’s here to stay.

   -Lynn A. Kuntz