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(IMPACT REPORT 2019)

ZERO WASTE JOURNEY

Our Manufacturing Team at Oakland is continuing on its path toward US Green Business Council (USGBC) Zero Waste Certification.

To achieve this certification, members of the Environmental Health and Safety team weigh, record and allocate all waste generated by the facility. Sometimes this requires cutting open packaging of product that has failed a texture or packaging spec. (Once, it required a dedicated team member to manually unload an entire roll-off of composting materials – true mission dedication that we sincerely promise he’ll never have to do again.)

Our rate of waste diversion from landfill averaged between 70% to 90% for most of 2018. When we changed our production line to roll out the new Impossible 2.0 recipe, waste that went to landfill spiked. Effectively, it was a recommission of the manufacturing process, and the infrastructure and space available to hold the transition waste wasn’t sufficient – not enough staging room, and pick-ups from the municipal waste management company not quite often enough.

Trash and Earth High Five Illustration impossible foods sustainability

Despite that difficult learning experience, we remain on our path to USGBC certification in 2020, requiring 90% average landfill diversion and a robust suite of waste reduction tactics and training programs. Anticipating the inevitable unexpected challenges, our team is focusing on resilience to minimize future landfill diversion in the face of production surges and system changes.

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