Green Chemistry
This team formed in 2011.
What they do
Identify chemicals that reduce or eliminate risks to human health, environmental toxicity and greenhouse gas impacts while ensuring food safety and product quality.
What’s Green Chemistry?
Green chemistry is the idea that products and processes can be designed to reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances.
What does Green Chemistry have to do with yogurt-making?
Our manufacturing processes and utility systems use a variety of chemicals, most for cleaning the manufacturing equipment, an essential part of keeping our high-quality standards. Smaller amounts of chemicals are also used in our R&D and Quality labs, the wastewater treatment plant, for treatment of cooling water, and for janitorial duties.
Certainly, we already focus on creating a safe workplace and minimizing the risk to our employees and the environment from the use of these chemicals. But the Green Chemistry MAP team will be asking, “Can we do more? Are there environmentally friendly chemical alternatives that are safer, less caustic, lower-risk, etc. and equally effective?”
What do we already know about the potential for Green Chemistry at Stonyfield?
The Green Chemistry MAP team will have a solid foundation when it launches, thanks in part to a recent study led by our Safety Department and conducted in conjunction with the University of Massachusetts Lowell Center for Sustainable Production and School of Health & Environment. We now have a baseline assessment of chemical usage including environmental and human health hazards, along with several recommended alternatives. The Green Chemistry MAP team will explore these and other opportunities to bring Greener Chemistry to Stonyfield.
