Del Monte Environmental Performance

The focus areas for Environmental Performance at Del Monte Foods are Agriculture, Processing, Packaging, and Distribution. To effectively monitor our key environmental performance indicators, we established a baseline year of 2007 with a target year of 2016 in each of our priority focus areas. The goals for the Processing focus area are:

* 10% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per ton of finished product

* 20% reduction in fresh water usage per ton of finished product

* 20% reduction in solid waste going to landfill from Del Monte operations per ton of finished product

Del Monte Foods owns 20 production facilities that process fruits, vegetables, and other ingredients to make our consumer products and pet food. Most of the facilities are located in the United States; however, we also own two facilities in Mexico and one in Venezuela. At each site, we are beginning to track and manage our performance with regard to materials, energy, water, waste, and emissions. We have adopted Lean manufacturing standards to streamline production processes and eliminate waste and inefficiency. Through these efforts, we are improving yields, reducing costs, and eliminating risk.

It may seem a simple thing, but another way that we minimize our facilities’ footprint is by ensuring that our processing plants are as close as possible to the fields where our crops are grown and harvested. Although the obvious benefit is the reduction in fuel used for transporting the produce (and reductions in related air emissions), co-locating our facilities means that we are using the freshest possible fruits and vegetables to make our products. We are also reducing the amount of produce that goes to waste because of spoilage or transportation-related damage. In sum, it’s another win-win: better tasting products made from fresher crops coupled with reduced costs related to transportation and spoilage.

Energy Consumption

Similar to other manufacturing plants, our facilities consume a fair amount of energy to process raw ingredients into final products. Given the economic and environmental implications of intensive energy use—especially as related to energy derived from nonrenewable sources such as natural gas, coal, or oil—we have implemented a wide array of energy reduction initiatives. These initiatives range from the recent installation of photovoltaic solar arrays at two of our facilities, to numerous simpler efficiency projects and equipment upgrades.

We will continue to seek out energy reduction opportunities across all our facilities and invest in the improvements that collectively reduce both our air emissions, including greenhouse gases (GHGs), and our operating costs. To aid in these efforts, we are in the process of compiling detailed energy use and GHG emissions information from our facilities. We expect to be able to report our baseline GHG inventory in 2010. At that time, we will also set more formal 2015 energy reduction goals.

Source: www.delmonte.com