Naturally Green, Tyson Foods Claims

Last updated Monday, April 7, 2008 12:43 PM CDT in Business

By Kim Souza
The Morning News

"Businesses of all sizes are realizing that sustainability is not a fad. Consumers are asking for it," said Michael Parker, executive director for the Seal of Sustainability, a local organization that helps businesses implement sustainable practices.

He said the public now demands proof of sustainable practices from companies.

Approximately 50 percent of U.S. consumers consider sustainability factors when selecting consumer packaged goods and choosing where to shop for those products, according to a recent survey by Information Resources Inc.

"Sustainability is like a stool, it has three legs which are essential for its balance. Tyson Foods appears to be focused in the right direction," Parker said.

The sustainability report has become a planning tool for businesses to acknowledge success and set future goals and standards with respect to being good corporate citizens and neighbors.

Joel Makower, executive editor of Greenbiz.com, applauds Tyson Foods for embracing the notion of sustainability. Companies like Tyson Foods - huge users of resources and generator of waste - are recognizing that sustainability can no longer be ignored.

"Tyson Foods sees the opportunities that exists in the growing green economy and gets the fact that sustainability is more than just eliminating wastes to preserve the bottom line, but also promotes new products and ideas that can boost its topline revenues," Makower said.

He said the company's fuel partnerships with ConocoPhillips and Syntroleum are examples of Tyson Foods' willingness to step outside its core business in turning chicken fat and beef tallow - waste products - into renewable fuels.

CARDBOARD SOLUTIONS

Greenbiz.com, an Oakland,Cal.-based consulting resource on green business practices, recently published its 2008 State of Green Biz Report.

Taking the aggregate environmental practices and uses of natural resources of all U.S. companies, Makower said there is still a long way to go. He classifies the nation's businesses in a holding pattern in terms of sustainability efforts, but he gave Tyson Foods and Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. a nod of approval for their efforts to think and act green.

Employing 104,000 at more than 300 facilities and offices across the globe, most would agree it can take some time to get an organization of this size all focused on the green initiative.

When the company was asked to spotlight examples of green-minded facilities, two regional operations were cited.

The company's poultry processing facilities in Berryville and Green Forest initiated a cardboard recycling program in 2005, which has paid handsomely and spun off other recycling efforts.

The company estimates these initiatives have saved more than 40,000 trees, 16.8 million gallons of water, 4,800 barrels of oil and more than 7,000 cubic yards of landfill space, the report said.

"In 2005, I visited our local landfill to witness the dumping of the cardboard wastes from the Green Forest facility," said Christy Smith, environmental manager for the Berryville-Green Forest complex. "I was amazed at the amount we were throwing away."

Tyson Foods signed a contract in 2005 with forestry giant Weyerhaeuser to provide a market for the used cardboard. Smith said it took some convincing to get the $60,000 capital appropriation for a cardboard baler at a time when there was little guarantee for a return.

AVOIDING LANDFILLS

With cardboard prices trading well above their five-year average, Smith said the complex has projected a rebate approaching $500,000 in 2008. She said the complex has seen a 153 percent increase in its projected recycling revenue so far this year as a result of better efficiency and higher market prices.

The recycling rebates from Weyerhaueser are funneled back to the complexes who earn them, Smith said, which gives those facilities incentive and a boost to their budgets.

The complex also recycles office paper, which it donates to Carroll County Solid Waste, the local trash hauler. Through Staples, the complex donates its used ink cartridges which generates $3 per cartridge for Carroll County schools.

Smith said the complex has embraced recycling just about everything it can.

Cooking oil, used breading, soda cans and bottles, ink cartridges, used batteries, plastic tubs and lids, wooden pallets, used hydraulic oil, used oil filters, offal material and scrap metal are all recycled by the Berryville-Green Forest complex.

Last year alone, the two facilities received more than $270,000 from recycled cardboard. In addition to the cash rebate, they saved another $140,000 in disposal costs from less waste, the company said.

In 2007, the complex recycled nearly 2,400 tons of cardboard, which was almost 10 percent of the company's total cardboard credit of 25,405 tons.

Smith said not every Tyson Foods facility generates enough cardboard to justify the cost of a baler and the additional manpower needed to break down and transport the cardboard bundles. But the profit levels for recycling cardboard are now high enough to justify another look at what could be done at other Tyson Foods plants.

ROOM TO IMPROVE

The company admitted recently it should provide more opportunities for recycling at its corporate headquarters in Springdale.

Tyson Foods will begin its new corporate initiative April 22 - Earth Day - by encouraging employees to take part in recycling paper, plastic, soda cans, ink cartridges and batteries.

Perhaps the corporate campus is following the lead of its poultry plant, hatchery and feed mill in Monett, Mo.

The Monett complex was bit with the recycling bug as early as 2004, and has reduced its volume of solid waste by 70 percent.

The Monett plant also prides itself on water conservation. It reuses approximately 720 gallons per minute of water in areas such as cooling of vacuum pumps, trench drain flow and heat exchangers. This saves about 180 million gallons of water each year.

But Monett is an exception.

Gary Mickelson, spokesman for Tyson Foods, said all of the company's processing facilities have been challenged to develop and implement strategies to reduce water usage. Water reuse is just one aspect of the company's overall water conservation plan.

Water reuse is determined on a plant-by-plant basis and many of its poultry slaughter facilities like Monett have the programs and technology in place, Mickelson said.

Water conservation plans are unique to each facility depending on the product mix, equipment layout and food safety requirements, he added.

WATER WORKS

The company also operates 35 full-treatment and 29 pre-treatment wastewater plants in North America. During 2006 and 2007 the company spent more than $169 million to operate these facilities as well as $16 million in capital expenditures for modifications necessary for compliance, the report said.

Tyson Foods also saw a 34 percent reduction in its notice of violations between 2006 and 2007.

In the last 25 years Don Morgan worked as a water inspector for the Arkansas Department of Water Quality, he said Tyson Foods always illustrated a willingness to correct violations. Morgan, who retired at the end of 2006, said most of the violations the company received during his tenure related to farm operations.

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