For 25 years, Stonyfield Farm has been saying that organic farming and environmentally friendly business practices are essential to our health and that of the planet, Forbes reports. Back in 1997, Stonyfield started calculating the amount of energy used to run the plant and then made an equivalent investment in projects like reforestation and wind farms.
But as competitors, such as Horizon Organic and Silk soy milk, begin making green waves, Stonyfield finds it’s not alone in making environmental claims.
The company is banking that its greener-than-thou strategy will continue to give it a market edge. Its website features blogs and interactive elements like the Have-A-Cow program, where users “adopt” cows and get updates and pictures of them. As a Live Earth sponsor, the concert is advertised on its yogurt lids. And Stonyfield is looking for more ways to incorporate renewable sources of energy.
Gary Hirshberg, chief executive of Stonyfield is chairman of Climate Counts, a new nonprofit that has released a scorecard that ranks consumer companies on environmental issues.