Zero waste certificate for vegan facility

The production facility for popular vegan brand Follow Your Heart has become the first plant-based company in the US to receive Gold Level zero waste certification.

Earth Island, the facility where Follow Your Heart produces their line of well-known vegan products, received the zero waste award from organisation Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI).

The Zero Waste Facility Certification lists eight different requirements in order to gain certification and state: “Our facility certification programme goes beyond diversion numbers and focuses on the upstream policies and practices that make Zero Waste successful in an organisation.”

Earth Island had to meet a strict set of guidelines outlined by GBCI which included them having to divert at least 90% of waste going to landfills, and instead implementing a programme which saw reduction achieved through strategic purchasing, material reuse, composting, increased recycling, and a programme to improve education for employees on waste reductions.

The Vegetarian Resource Group explain that: “Earth Island analysed every aspect of its operation to classify and quantify all sources of its waste and then identify where waste could either be reduced through increased recycling or composting, or eliminated through reusing materials.”

The company redesigned the lids of some products so that it would reduce its packaging by over 23,000 pounds per year, resulting in their hard work being rewarded earlier this month with the certification.

“Through their efforts, Earth Island diverted nearly 100 tonnes of recycling, composted 136 tonnes, and re-purposed 228 tonnes of materials.”

Bob Goldberg, CEO of Earth Island, said: “The love and care that Earth Island puts into every Follow Your Heart product is strengthened by their commitment to sustainability. It is simply an important part of being a responsible business in today’s world. It’s time for every business to contribute to changing the world for the better.”

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