Provision Coalition / November 2017
Dear Members & Manufacturers:
 
This quarter's feature story on  Marsan Foods provides an excellent example of how having a sustainable business strategy can pay off in more ways than one. Their ability to embrace change and innovation has been a key component to their success - I tip my hat to their tenacity. 
 
With the Food Loss + Waste (FLW) Workshop taking place earlier this month - now is a great time to get inspired by some recent FLW success stories:
 
A joint Pilot Project between Provision, Campbell's Company of Canada and Enviro-Stewards won  Project of The Year at Canada's Clean50 awards after identifying FLW savings of 938 tonnes annually, valued at $706,000 to the Campbell's Toronto plant. This pilot study demonstrates the importance of FLW prevention. 
 
In addition, I recently caught up with Club Coffee to discuss the launch of their 100 per cent Compostable coffee pod and how they're using innovation to drive their sustainability objectives. Make your daily commute a little more enjoyable and tune into our new podcast series via SoundCloud

I also encourage you to participate in the industry survey for the proposed  Ontario Organic Waste Disposal Ban if you think you may be impacted. The survey is being conducted by 2cg, who has been hired by the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to assess the implications of the ban for various stakeholders.

In our Sponsored Content section you'll read about Wessuc, a Canadian Company that's helping food and beverage manufacturers reduce their wastewater costs with innovative reduction solutions. 
 
We hope these stories inspire you to get creative when it comes to your sustainability efforts. Do let us know if there are any topics you'd like to see covered in the future. 

Sincerely, 
Cher Mereweather

Executive Director
Provision Coalition

QUARTERLY FEATURE ARTICLE - MARSAN FOODS

Marsan partnered with Provision and GOProductivity to better understand their sustainability challenges and to develop a sustainable business strategy to reflect the company's commitment to sustainability, productivity, and innovation.

Together, the Marsan, Provision and GOProductivity team developed a strategic plan that once implemented, resulted in:
  • a 30 per cent increase in the throughput of the food service tray line
  • a re-engineered process that reduced wait-time waste by 25 shifts
  • 20 new process methods implemented across the organization
  • new line efficiency reporting and supervisor accountability implemented
  • which all resulted in an increase in employee engagement.
The Strategic Planning Process
Provision's team met with Marsan's senior leadership team and initiated a process of identifying the company's purpose and vision, the strategic pillars critical to their business success, and the related key performance indicators (KPIs). Goals were then set for each KPI and a plan established to achieve those goals.

Engagement with Provision Coalition and GOProductivity helped Marsan identify the importance of managing change and ensuring accountability. As a result, Marsan incorporated a change management consulting company into the implementation process. Since that time, 20 new process methods, coupled with daily progress meetings that focus on productivity (including resource utilization), quality, food safety, and health and safety has helped Marsan to apply sustainability to their business decisions and meet new customer demands.
 
Director of Operations, Kristoffer Soderlind commented, 

"This process has been a real eye-opener for Marsan in terms of the importance of sustainability in our company's long term growth plan. We have engaged an HR professional to improve our employee culture and connected with production system expertise to find production inefficiencies. These changes are already proven beneficial."

To read the full case study click here
 

TOP PROJECT OF THE YEAR - CANADA'S CLEAN50
 
Top Project of the Year - Canada's Clean50

With 18% of Canada's total food waste lost during manufacturing, Provision and its project partners set out to address this costly challenge.

The Campbell Soup Company is committed to reducing food loss and waste in its manufacturing operations around the world. Campbell has adopted Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3 to halve food waste by 2030. Campbell is also a member of Champions 12.3 and is a U.S. Food Loss and Waste (FLW) 2030 Champion.  For these reasons, Provision approached Campbell Company of Canada to conduct a pilot to apply Provision's FLW Reduction Toolkit and conduct a FLW Prevention Assessment with Enviro Stewards, with the goal of preventing food waste at the source. 

The pilot identified practical and economically attractive opportunities to reduce food waste by almost 1,000 tonnes/year valued at $706,000 to the Toronto, Ontario facility. In addition, the food waste has the equivalent of 4,000 tonnes of avoided carbon emissions when compared to diversion; further demonstrating the importance of preventing food waste in the first place. 



PODCAST - APPLYING INNOVATION TO DRIVE SUSTAINABILITY
Applying Innovation to Drive Sustainability 

Cher Mereweather sits down with Solange Ackrill, VP Strategic Planning & Process Innovation to talk about how innovation is driving their sustainability efforts. 

ONTARIO ORGANIC WASTE DISPOSAL BAN - INDUSTRY SURVEY

Ontario Organic Waste Disposal Ban Survey

As you may know, the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change in its Strategy for a Waste-Free Ontario, made a commitment to ban organic waste (e.g. food waste, soiled paper, food processing / manufacturing waste) from landfill disposal to increase diversion of these wastes and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

2cg has been hired by the Ministry to establish baseline data, summarize current approaches, analyze best practices, and assess potential implications of an organic waste disposal ban for  various stakeholders. 

They have asked us to share this short survey related to waste audit data to help develop a better understanding of organic waste generation by the industrial, commercial and institutional (IC&I) sector. The information collected will be used to inform the work of 2cg and be included in a organic waste quantity and composition model developed by 2cg.

To maintain anonymity and confidentiality all the data will be aggregated for use in various models, with outputs presented in summary tables. There will be no data presented that identifies any waste generators.

Participate in Survey
SPONSORED CONTENT
SPONSORED CONTENT
Turning Waste into Value

Ontario Food Processing Manufacturer Reduces Wastewater Costs by 50% with Innovative Waste Reduction Solution

Wessuc's client, a large food manufacturer, noticed an increase in wastewater charges from their local Wastewater Treatment Plant due to the sugar content in their wastewater. In addition, the small tank storage capacity on site caused overflow onto the floor which presented a safety issue for employees. 

The Solution

The solution was to haul the sugar water away from the facility. To do this, a 160 m3 storage tank was put on site which is monitored 24/7 by Wessuc using an App called Smarttank.

Wessuc is notified when the tank reaches certain levels, which triggers Wessuc to remove the sugar water. The sugar water is then delivered to local pig farmers for feed and to small digesters for power supply. The remaining water gets fed back into the facility's wastewater system.

Cost Savings

The facility saw a 50% reduction in their overall wastewater cost, equal to $240,000 a year in savings!

Wessuc is capable of developing cost effective solutions to almost every waste issue. 

Turn Your Waste Into Value - contact Phil Cron at  1.866.493.7782   or info@wessuc.com to learn more about Wessuc Solutions. 
UPCOMING 2017- 2018 EVENTS

Thank you for your continued commitment to 
making food  sustainability.