The Enviro-Stewards mandate is simple enough; to help clients conserve their resources and effectively address their environmental liabilities. It’s a mandate the company has taken very seriously since it was founded in 2000, estimating that its numerous projects have saved companies in the food and beverage, manufacturing and organic chemicals industries about $45 million. In addition, these projects have an average payback period of about nine months. So what’s Enviro-Stewards’s secret to reducing costs? “Don’t manage waste, eliminate it,” says Bruce Taylor, the founder and President of Enviro-Stewards.
Enviro-Stewards is a certified B Corp, which are for-profit companies certified by the non-profit organization B Lab to meet very high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. In fact, B Lab has selected his company as one of the best companies for the world three times.
As a B Corp, Enviro-Stewards is required to submit an Annual Public Benefit statement on its efforts to improve the world. The latest submission shows that the $45 million in savings translates to savings of:
“Everything we do is focused on avoiding or preventing all forms of waste in the first place,” says Bruce. “We look at a company’s entire operations, end to end to find waste. We talk with them about their processes and procedures and their reasons for doing things the way they do them. Next, we identify the related utility consumption caused by creating this waste. Finally create a strategy that focuses on quick payback.”
That’s the approach Bruce and Aleks Poldma, a Project Consultant with Enviro-Stewards took when they assessed the operations of two AFPA member bakeries earlier this spring. With support from Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s Bio-Industrial Opportunities Section and Provision Coalition who administers the Food Waste Reduction Tool Kit as part of its online Sustainability Management System, the work scored major success.
Combined, Enviro-Stewards found 19 opportunities to reduce food waste and 29 related utility consumption reductions. These findings can be implemented quite quickly, involve little capital outlay and have a return on investment of well under one year, saving both companies hundreds of thousands of dollars which will improve their bottom lines.
It’s results like these which is why Sandra Meagher, AFPA’s Director of Sustainability Strategy and Programming, sees real value in offering food processors a waste workshop facilitated by Enviro-Stewards.
“The approach Enviro–Stewards provides is like offering you a different set of glasses to look at your operation. This new set of glasses will show you the opportunities and potential revenue you walk by every day. It is about the linkages all the way through your process; from ingredients, to production, to energy, to output, and how one change can reduce your waste, increase your productivity, and ultimately reduce costs. It just makes good business sense!”
Bruce Taylor, has almost 30 years of experience in the environmental consulting industry. He has managed wastewater characterization, treatability testing, treatment facility design and implementation. He has worked with some leading food and beverage companies, including Maple Leaf, Campbell’s, Tim Horton’s and others. He also has extensive experience helping bakeries, brewers and distillers and prepared food manufacturers. He has also led environmental, cost-reduction projects for clients in the semiconductor, aerospace, automotive, nuclear, petroleum, specialty chemical, mining, pulp and paper, electroplating, textile, fabrication and health care fields.
Bruce is also an internationally recognized expert and conference speaker in the field of water and waste reduction, reuse and recycling. He recently spoke at AFPA’s “New Face of Agri-Processing” Conference in late May and in October, he’ll be speaking at a TEDx conference at the University of Waterloo. https://www.facebook.com/pg/TEDxUW/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1682217261810731
We are proud to have Bruce and Aleks Poldma facilitate “Money Down the Drain,” happening September 26 in Edmonton and September 27 in Calgary. For more information or to register.