Stonyfield is proud that we are now in our second year of operating our Londonderry manufacturing facility in New Hampshire with 100% renewable electricity. We continue to explore strategies that would allow us to achieve our goal of using 100% renewable energy there by 2025, which would include the reduction or elimination of natural gas for heat and the purchase of applicable credits and offsets. Stonyfield was able to achieve the electricity portion of this milestone well ahead of schedule by employing versatile solar energy initiatives, including producing our own solar electricity, supporting new solar installations in the Midwest to obtain the environmental attributes, and purchasing a dedicated supply of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs). We will report more on our progress toward this goal next year.

Packaging is a major environmental factor for consumer goods. Stonyfield has set sustainability goals for the packaging of all Stonyfield products, including the use of recycled and bio-based content and improving recyclability. Our sustainable packaging goals include:

goals

• We are working with current and potential suppliers to explore ways to increase the recycled content in our packaging and/or moving to bio-based packaging to reach 100% recycled/bio-based content by 2030 for packaging materials.
• Light-weight all packaging components 10% by 2030 by eliminating all unnecessary components and reducing packaging weight.
• We are tracking greenhouse gas emissions for all current and future packaging solutions to explore and target the best ways to reduce greenhouse emissions from our packaging by 15% by 2030.
• Remove toxins in packaging beyond current FDA requirements by requiring suppliers to remove an additional 25 chemicals from packaging.

reducing food waste

Food waste is responsible for 8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and Stonyfield works diligently to avoid wasting organic products and to reduce our carbon footprint. To help reduce waste, Stonyfield worked with Spoiler Alert in 2023 to implement solutions to limit wasted product through better inventory management. Better inventory controls that lead to waste reduction procedures help reduce emissions, contribute to food donation programs, and enhance supply chain sustainability. This shift involved digitizing the discounting process, unifying procedures for different brands, and introducing new discount buyers. The result: more food sold, less food wasted, increased product access to more diverse consumers, and decreased emissions resulting from unused products.

To tackle the greenhouse gas reduction challenges in agriculture, Stonyfield teamed up with Wolfe’s Neck Center, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, the USDA, and others to create OpenTEAM. This initiative brings together diverse stakeholders to share knowledge, develop unified data approaches, and ensure data privacy. Through OpenTEAM, we’re enhancing the efficiency of data management with our tech and measurement collaborators. Cool Farm Tool is one tool we use to measure the cradle-to-farm-gate emissions on farms in our direct milk supply chain. Every farm in our direct milk supply is assessed at least once every three years to support our carbon accounting toward our science-based target. The results identify emission “hot spots,” which helps guide our work to address these emissions.

Stonyfield’s strategy to reduce on-farm greenhouse gas emissions includes a focus on farmers’ manure management efforts, which refers to the handling, storage and disposal of animal waste. Manure is a problematic greenhouse gas emission “hotspot” because manure can release methane and nitrous oxide during decomposition. Proper manure management practices are important to reduce these emissions, recycle nutrients back into the soil, and protect water quality. These efforts illustrate Stonyfield’s deep belief in organic farming, because doing right by the planet supports all organic farmers, not just our direct milk suppliers.

Inefficient animal grazing practices cause soil degradation and reduce soil carbon sequestration. These practices can produce problematic greenhouse gas emission “hotspots” on farms. Similarly, feed production — growing and processing of feed crops for livestock — is a significant hotspot due to the emissions associated with land use changes, cultivation, and transportation. Stonyfield is committed to helping farmers in our supply chain implement grazing and forage production practices that reduce emissions and promote sustainable grassland ecosystems. Stonyfield is in the process of identifying practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from pasture management by working with The Soil Inventory Project and Regrow to measure and model the impacts of organic practices on soil carbon sequestration and field emissions. This project, involving extensive soil sampling and analysis, aims to find the most impactful ways to enhance soil health and inform tailored improvements for farmers, leading to more effective climate mitigation.

Enteric methane emissions produced through cows’ digestion are the largest source of emissions on Stonyfield’s direct milk supply farms. To address this problematic greenhouse gas emission “hotspot”, Stonyfield is collaborating with Bigelow Laboratory, UNH, UVM, and others in a groundbreaking project researching the use of Gulf of Maine seaweed as a feed additive to mitigate enteric methane emissions produced during digestion. At Stonyfield’s annual direct milk supply farmers meeting, producers and seaweed researchers gathered at UNH’s research farm for a day of learning about on-farm methane and discuss how research could transition to a commercial setting. This innovative research holds promise for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while benefiting dairy and beef production, and also supporting the local Northeast marine economy. Initial tests conducted in 2023 showed encouraging results, and long-term trials set for 2024 will allow for analysis on the full impact of the kelp product on methane production and intensity.

Together with our parent company, Stonyfield has joined a major effort to monitor and reduce greenhouse gases from agriculture. The Dairy Methane Action Alliance is a global initiative that accelerates action and accountability on methane across the dairy sector. By joining this groundbreaking initiative, signatory companies commit to annually account for and publicly disclose methane emissions, and to publish and implement a comprehensive methane action plan. The Environmental Defense Fund and the sustainability nonprofit Ceres will hold these companies accountable as their plans are implemented.

Stonyfield remained active in the policy arena in 2023 with a focus on the Farm Bill, including enhanced organic regulations through support for the Continuous Improvement and Accountability in Organic Standards Act (CIAO Act). The company also pushed for increased funding for organic research through the Support Organic Agriculture Research (SOAR) initiative. In collaboration with Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin and New Hampshire Rep. Annie Kuster, Stonyfield supported the development of the Organic Market Development Grants Act to complement USDA efforts to help farmers transition to organic. Grants from these efforts expand organic processing infrastructure so producers have a clear way to get their products to market. Stonyfield also advocated for the preservation of $20 billion in funding for Farm Bill conservation programs provided in the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. Stonyfield’s policy advocacy, along with others in the organic dairy sector, led to the USDA’s creation of the Organic Dairy Market Assistance Payments, which allocated $20 million to the organic dairy sector in 2023.