How Stonyfield Organic Improved the Environmental Footprint of Its Yogurt Pouch Packaging

Hello everyone. Uh we will wait just one more minute and uh let the rest of theparticipants trickle in and then uh we’ll go ahead and get started here shortly.Oopsies.Okay, I think maybe um we will go ahead and get started. Um hello everybody andwelcome. I am Ariela, a senior sustainability adviser at Pure Strategies. Thank you so much forjoining us uh in today’s session which is focused on the really really important topic of packagingsustainability. Uh specifically we’ll be discussing Stonyfield’s journey to improve the environmental footprint ofits yogurt pouch packaging. A few quick housekeeping items before webegin. Uh if you have any questions throughout the session, we encourage you to enter them through the Q&A field. Weaim to cover as many as we can uh after our presentation today.Uh please note that this webinar is being recorded and will be available on our website at purestrategies.com.Before we dive in, I’d love to provide a brief overview of Pure Strategies for those who may be less familiar with usand our work. Uh Pure Strategies is a sustainability consulting firm and certified BC Corporation. For over 27years, we’ve been helping our clients at various stages of their sustainability journeys. We’ve, you know, we helpcompanies build and implement sustainability programs that drive strategy and goal and target settingacross key areas such as climate regenerative agriculture, packaging,nature, and sustainable chemistry. This includes creating programs from the ground up as well as diving reallydeeply into product uh and packaging sustainability as well as supply chain sustainability.In addition to myself, we are joined today by two sustainability leaders from Stonyfield Organic who were involved atvarious stages and in different capacities in this pouch packaging work. Bridget Pashette is the vice presidentof quality and corporate social responsibility at Lactalis US yogurt which includes the brands Stonyfield andSiggies. Bridget has over three decades of experience working with FDA regulatedoperations with a focus on managing engineering, manufacturing, and quality teams in both the biotech and yogurtindustries. She also serves on the food safety committee of IDFA or theInternational Dairy Foods Association. We are also joined by Britt Lungren, thesenior director of sustainability and government affairs at Lactalis USA. Britt has two decades of experienceworking to advance agricultural and industrial sustainability through policy and supply chain initiatives in both thenonprofit and business sectors. She serves on the boards of the Organic Trade Association, the Sustainable FoodLab, the New Hampshire Conservation Law Foundation, and co-chairs the board for the Northeast Organic Family FarmPartnership. As I mentioned, today we will be discussing how Stonyfield has worked toimprove the environmental sustainability of its pouch packaging. We will first start by talking about Stonyfield’s longhistory of environmental stewardship and responsible business practices. We’ll then get into some of the drivers forsustainable packaging work at Stonyfield. We’ll then delve into how Stonyfield arrived at its approach forimproving pouch packaging, discussing technical challenges and lessons learned, as well as what some futurework might look like. We will also highlight what resources Stony has made available for others to learn from theirpouch sustainability journey. And then finally, we’ll end our session with a question and answer period. Again, feelfree to write any questions that come up in the Q&A field during the session and we will try to answer as many aspossible. With that, I will pass it off to Brit.Thanks, Ariela. And thanks so much for uh to everyone for joining us heretoday. We can um head straight into the next slide. Ariela, I’m going to startby just sharing a little bit of Stonyfield’s history on our um commitment to sustainability. EastStonyfield actually got its start back in 1983 on a little farm just west of where I’msitting over in Wilton, New Hampshire. And Gary Hersburg and Samuel Cayman wererunning an organic farming school. And they were trying to find a way to bring in some additional income for thatschool because not surprisingly, running an organic farming school doesn’t generate uh much in the way of cashflow. Um and Samuel was fermenting various things in the farmhouse kitchenand they decided that maybe yogurt had some commercial potential. So umStonyfield was born out of that initiative. But really at the core of their effort was this question of canbusiness be a force for good? Can it be a way to advance a mission and make theworld more sustainable? And those questions and and that mission have really continued to guide Stonyfieldover four decades later in how we run and grow our business. Next slide.So this is um a a really condensed timeline of some of our sustainabilityinitiatives and successes over the years. And um over this time we have pioneeredmany sustainab sustainable business practices that have since become commonplace.So you can see many highlights here but I’ll just touch on a few. One is that wewere the first US manufacturer to offset our greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing. And we did this back in1997 when really no one had any idea what offsets even were. We collaboratedwith the Union of Concerned Scientists at the time to do this and then we worked with them to write a guide forhow other businesses could also offset their emissions. We were the first yogurt manufacturer to do with do awaywith plastic lids on our single serve cups and we switched to foil which reduced the materials and the weight ofour packaging. And as time has gone on, we’ve adopted several third-partyverification systems that validate our efforts on sustainability.Most importantly, all of our products became certified organic back in 2007.And we really view this as foundational to our sustainability commitment because of the number of farms that we cansupport that don’t use toxic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Today, we arealso a certified BC corporation. We have a science-based target and we’re working closely with the farmers in our supplychain to provide them with the tools, knowledge, and financial support to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.Next slide, Ariela. Our science-based target guides ourefforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all aspects of our business. Our target is set as a 42%absolute reduction for scopes 1 and two and a 30.3% reduction of scope 3emissions by 2030. We’re proud to have achieved 100%renewable electricity at our London New Hampshire plant, which is our main manufacturing facility. And we did thatum back in 2022. And we’re now working hard to find ways that we can decarbonize scope one in that facilityto reduce natural gas usage. As I mentioned earlier, we have several initiatives underway with our directsupply producers to help them reduce emissions. And we’re deeply engaged in research to understand how those farmscan also increase the amount of carbon they sequester in the soil. And of course, packaging emissions are acritical piece of our scope 3 footprint. And we’ll talk a lot more about that um as we go. Next slide.And next slide. Research shows that consumers areincreasingly demanding more eco-friendly products that reduce their carbon footprint and conserve naturalresources. So shifting to more sustainable packaging by increasing recycled content, advancingrecyclability, lightweighting components, reducing plastic and innovating on reusability can all helpus as a company improve brand loyalty and really meet the needs uh thatconsumers are seeking. Retailers are also focused on this and they recognizethe need to transition to more sustainable packaging. Retailers like Walmart, Target, and Hannerfords haveall set their own suites of packaging sustainability targets, particularly focused on their private label products.And these retailer own brand targets highlight the importance to retailers across the industry of rising to theoccasion and really taking action on packaging. Packaging sustainability is alsoreceiving attention at the regulatory level and there are many state and national governments that areintroducing and passing extended producer responsibility bills. EPR is apolicy approach that holds producers financially and operational responsible for the entire life cycle of theirproducts including the recycling streams to manage packaging after use. A keyaspect of these laws is that they incentivize the shift to packaging that is recyclable or more sustainable.And stakeholders see this EPR regulation as an essential tool that can help usaddress the global challenges that we have with recycling and single-use plastic pollution. As of June, there areseven US states that have passed EPR legislation and more states are considering it. And so we really believeit’s incumbent on us to respond to this growing demand and to these regulatoryrequirements for more sustainable packaging. And it also helps us as a business to mitigate future regulatory,financial, and climate risk. Next slide.We chose to get started with pouches because they’re such an important part of our product portfolio. Brit. Um I’mgonna quickly talk through um Stonyfield’s packaging targets. Ohgreat. Um no that’s okay. Um you’re eager to talk pouches which I love. Umso in addition to the external drivers that Britt was talking about umStonyfield has also set a greenhouse gas reduction target multiple that it needs to meet. Right. So behind first milk andthen transportation and logistics, uh, packaging is actually the third largest contributor to Stonyfield’s greenhousegas emissions. Um, so with this being the case, tackling packaging sustainability is a huge piece ofStonyfield’s climate strategy. to help achieve the greenhouse gas reduction targets that Brit just talkedabout. Um and as well as you know to demonstrate a leadership in the packaging space, Stonyfield has set fourpackaging related targets that it is working towards. Um the first is to reduce the carbon footprint of packagingby at least 15% by 2030 from a 2020 baseline. The next is lightweingpackaging components 10% um in across the same time period through you knowremoving additional pieces that may not be necessary or reducing the weight of of packages. Um then to have a packagingportfolio that is either entirely biio-based or made from recyclable materials by 2030 and then continuingStonyfield’s commitment to keep toxic materials out of packaging. So to help determine how Stonyfieldwould achieve these targets and prioritize, you know, different improvement opportunities, um, in 2021,Pure Strategy supported Stonyfield in developing its first packaging inventory. What this packaging inventorydid was it examined all packaging used by Stonyfield for its products. um categorized by different types ofcharacteristics. Things like what’s the component type? What’s the material type? What’s the weight of the materialand the and the component? What’s the recyclability characteristics of this product? What’s the greenhouse gasimpact and many other factors as well? And so this helped us understand where key packaging hotspots existed againsteach of these different, you know, target areas. Um and then also helped us think about what formats presented themost significant opportunities for improvements. Um we then developed a road map to help inform what it wouldtake to achieve packaging targets based on what the packaging portfolio looked like at the time. Um looking at thingslike you know the impact of lightweing and replacing materials and enhancing recyclability among other topics aswell. Uh we also worked with Stonyfield to develop to develop an internal guidefor product and packaging teams to to think about best practices. So, you know, it was all of this exploratorywork that helped Stonyfield determine that pouches were really a top opportunity area for packagingsustainability efforts. Thanks, Ariela. So, now on to pouches.Um, as as Ariela noted, pouches are an important product part of Stonyfield’sproduct portfolio, and the total pouch segment is outpacing the rest of the kids segment by about 10 percentagepoints. So this is a s a significant portion of our total brand volume and areally important uh product for us. Pouches are usually made from multiplematerials and this helps them make them more convenient, more lightweight and more durable. So first generationpouches are composed of multiple layers of different plastics and in some casesa layer of aluminum. And as you can imagine, having this multimateriallaminate presents a lot of recycling challenges due not only to the inherentdifficulties of recycling plastic films, but also because the material recoveryfacilities or MURFs cannot separate these multimaterial pouches intoindividual components. Postconumer recycling content made from multiple materials does not have alikely recycling stream with a viable end market and so this is a key challenge. Additionally, the aluminumlayer in pouches generally has a higher carbon impact due to the upstream manufacturing of the aluminum.So we know that redesigning these pouches is going to be key for moving towards more sustainable packaging.Designing for recyclability involves assessing the pouch’s base material, itscolor, its closure material, coatings, additives, inks, adhesives, shape, andsize. And looking at all of this led us to an all polyethylene or PE lightweightpouch as a design that could achieve an immediate material source reduction andpackaging greenhouse gas emissions reductions while also supporting our efforts towards our longer termsustainable packaging goals. Next slide.And next slide. So we can really divide our work on pouches into these near and long-termambitions. So near-term, as I just described, our focus has been on reducing the materials that are embeddedin the pouch, both in the layers of the pouch itself and in the amount of plastic that’s contained in the pouchcap. We knew that shifting to a monollayer pouch material and lightweighting the cap would cost morethan the way we’ve been making our pouches. And so to ease this transition, we turned to the Northeast DairyBusiness Innovation Center for help. The DBIC is funded by the Farm Bill and itwas um founded to support farmers and dairy processors with improving theviability and sustainability of the US dairy sector. In the Northeast, the DBIChas a processor innovation grant. And so we applied to that and we were fortunate to receive $250,000in assistance that would help us defay the added cost of both shifting to the monomaterial pouch and modifying ourequipment to run lighter weight caps. So we were awarded this grant back in 2022and that year we started work on our YoBaby pouch line. So that’s the startof this work for us. But in the longer term, we believe that this is just the first step towards supporting the futurepotential for recyclability of pouches. We know that the recycling industry hasa ways to go in order for curbside recycling of flexible packaging to become a reality, but we also know thatmonomaterial pouches will be much easier for that recycling infrastructure to handle because those layers won’t needto be separated once they’re collected. Next slide.So um so I’ll take over from here. So we’re proud to say that as part of this journey as we reached started ourjourney in 2024 with the first launch of our yo baby pouches utilizing the cheerpacks new cheer circle um spouted all PE pouch. Now um at that time bytransitioning from the multi-layer uh laminate to the mono material of PE weallowed us to lightweight by 11%. Um that resulted in obviously 7,000 lbs ofplastic reduction. Um but in more importantly it also contributed to greenhouse emissions uh reduction uhwhich is part of main part of our inspiration for this process. So inorder to further this um so there’s many layers to uh packaging and the nextpiece that we focused on was also incorporating the um lightweighted capthe vizy cap by chairpack. The vizy cap actually meets multiple purposes uh forimprovement. One being as you can see is it has an improved grip for a yo baby. That’s an improved benefit.Additionally, it also has a uh better clarity to its um safety ring and moreimportantly, it also includes lightweighted from a plastic perspective. It’s hard to believe, but apoint4 g reduction uh can result in over400 uh 4,000 44,000 pounds of plastic. That’s millions of pouches um that arebeing produced. Additionally, with the success of our lightweing for our yo baby book line, we were able to also umexpand this innovation to other pouches in our portfolio that then allowed us toincrease our overall emissions reduction to 143 pounds uh of CO2. So for us thatwas a significant benefit. Um, so cap lightweing started as a small portionand has continued to expand. So our overall total benefit being over 50,000pounds of plastic is a huge um benefit to our business uh considering um thesmall start of a point4 gram change. Um so small things can add up very quicklyand I think that’s an important message. Um next slide please.Um as um has been discussed um one of the things that we needed to consider isthat our we are focusing on the potential future recycling.um as currently designed um the pouches are not recyclable.um because of the definition of recyclability and thatincludes the four categories that Brit mentioned earlier which is you have to be able to collect it, you have to beable to sort it, you have to be able to process and clean it and then you have to have an outlet related to thatmaterial that recycled material in order to you have so therefore you have to meet all four of those definitions inorder to be a recyclable packaging. So we are continuing to moveforward with this new pouch all PE pouch understanding that our target is that umfuture recycling capabilities and MURFs and the industry will progress such thatthis all PE pouch uh will be um recyclable. The um the film itself as part of ourbeginning of our journey had obtained APR. So that is the association ofplastic recyclers designed for recyclability recognition for their all PE film. But as noted inorder for the full pouch to be recyclable that means that all components cap spoutum and package inks all must be considered as part of the evaluation.and CheerPac are is working on on that with us to obtain APR design forrecyclability recognition for the whole package. So this is part of our journeyfor long-term recyclable packaging. Next slide please.So in order to engage in this process, it’s important to recognize that we’re afood manufacturer. We are not uh packaging subject matter experts. So itis really critical to rely on external sources to help support you to identifyyour road map and your path forward. So as Ariela identified earlier, peer strategies is part of that facilitatingand assisting in a roadmap related to our packaging strategy. Then from there we’re working with our suppliers bothfrom a roll stock uh a cap perspective um what equipment can be utilized andthe partnership between the packaging and the equipment that we have in our facilities is absolutely critical uh toensure that we are also researching innovation renovation with our suppliersbecause they are connected to what’s happening in industry and being able to provide provide us with additional uhguidance, feedback, um trends. So, uh suppliers are really critical in thisfrom a uh stakeholder perspective. Also, I would say early in our journey um wewere leveraging also industry um stakeholder groups such as um theassociation of plastic recyclers and both of which are constantly monitoringindustry. They’re bringing together um all industry partners to share bestpractices to identify what challenges there are in industry and then to helpum put forward what might be the standards. So those um two pieces werecritical in the beginning of this journey and um internal um because thenyou need to uh once you have an idea it needs to be vetted. Does it support the brand? Does it support our businessstrategy? Does it support your uh distribution network? Uh depending on how you’re uh managing your productportfolio. In addition, can it be uh implemented on your uh packaging linesand um working with industrial manufacturing? And most importantly,does it support or do you have leadership support? Because these endeavors are not um they’re not quick.Uh they’re part of a longer path and it’s really critical um that you have uh leadership support. Not to be forgottenis our consumers. Um, we are out to make fantastic yogurt, but our consumers arealso expecting us to be a leader in sustainability. And with that comes expectations to to deliver uh moresustainable options uh for our consumers so that um so that they can feel uhbetter about the products that they’re buying. Um and retailers are alsogetting very engaged as Brit identified earlier. She gave three examples of retailers that are very focused on uhproviding solutions for sustainable packaging. But retailers also have a critical component in regards to theycan be part of your solutions for recycling. They can put in uh recyclingcollection centers uh for particular types of packaging at their facilities as they do with grocery store bags forexample. Um and so working with them to promote sustainable packaging, topromote brands that are doing that, um to help educate consumers, they are alsoa critical part of that. So when you’re embarking on a journey of sustainability, all of thesestakeholders need to be considered. Next slide, please.So let’s get into some of the technical challenges uh that we had. Um it aswe’ve indicated this journey started in uh 2022 and here we are in 2025 giving apresentation. So I think it’s clear to say that these uh journeys take time. Umand um with that there are a lot of lessons that are learned through that process and um so we’ll start with thefilm. Um for us given that we are a food manufacturer it is critical that thefilm is compatible with our product. So with that comes many many trials uh oftesting both our product in the packaging making sure that those there’s no adverse effects to both productquality as well as shelf life um of our products. So that is critical uh from amaterial perspective. As we then migrate then we start looking at does the material itself have any adverse impactson our manufacturing. So with that the um all PE film is aslightly softer film. with that in our manufacturing operations. We actuallyneeded to make only a few changes, but you started to see that that film uhmight have had some challenges related to being picked up or to um to as itflows on conveyors. So, you need to take a look and look all the little minor components of the film and how itapplies. Those were easy adjustments uh mostly based on automation. Waste uhwaste is always a concern for us. Um but in this particular case, the transitionfrom one film to another really did not create any additional or supplemental waste that we needed to be concernedabout. But one lesson that we did have was that the printing of our graphics onthe film did have an impact. the ver the first several um printings of ourgraphics on the all PE pouch were not umacceptable. They were blurry. The clarity was not good. So in partnershipwith uh Americanore and CheerPac, we had to work on resetting some of the umprint quality attributes in order to ensure that we received a product that we could then utilize. So criticallessons there that don’t come out, you know, in the beginning and take time to find. Next, as we transition into caps,the cap size is slightly different. Um, orientation is is different. So, becauseof the cap and using the VSY cap, we then discovered challenges related tohow the caps move through our process. They were getting stuck. Um and thenthey were having other issues that then created problems with our operational efficiency. As anyone knows, running afacility, the last thing you want is a reduction in operational efficiency. So there was several iterations related touh caps with our packaging uh supplier in order to optimizeum how this cap could be utilized on our line. Um so that is a critical attributethat we needed to consider. Manufacturing infrastructure then considers um other aspects of how are wegoing to make this sustainable. We’re still using multiple cap styles. So that means that you need to be looking atyour design of your cap and your equipment. Are you implementingsomething that is flexible and is adjustable or are you implementing something that has change parts? So thatwas a critical lesson. From there we took the modifications that we made and were able to then replicate it on asubsequent line that allowed us to ensure that day one the lessons that welearned with the initial trials were then cascaded uh into our future umprogress and specifications. dual sourcing. Um, as a manufacturer, weneed to ensure that we have the ability to um have the ability to share um sourcingum because of risk um with our overall product supply and um as 2020 taughtpeople anything, it was that you need to have dual sourcing. Um so with that umwe are looking at making sure that uh cap designs and the modifications thatwe’re making are uh adaptable for all of our equipment. And then future as I’ve touched on withmanufacturing infrastructure is to continue to have future planning um such that cap designs are going to continueto be uh adapted. We know that in Europe the tether is an advancement that isstarting to happen for recycling streams. So, we need to be mindful that as we’re looking at innovations now, theinnovations of tomorrow are still yet to come. We’ve talked a little bit about recyclability already. Um, and that isobviously a key lesson for us is that even though we’re making progress in moving forward with a a PE all PE pouch,that we still need to continue so that we get to a point that we actually have a full recyclable design.And then in general, there’s always more costs than you anticipate. I think it’simportant to consider there’s incremental costs uh related to both equipment, but then there’s alsoincremental costs as it relates to packaging. When you’re an innovator and you’re using some of the newest uminnovation related to packaging, there isn’t a large demand. With that lack ofdemand, there tends to be higher cost on some of the packaging components until demand catches up. But it’s important touh to be a leader and to uh understand that. Um I think replication is alsokey. These uh technologies and utilizing your stakeholders means that this uh issomething that can be replicated across uh multiple um businessesand is and the strategy related to how we’ve implemented this one particular uhapplication on our pouch can be then also applied to other packaging formatsacross uh your business. And then as I mentioned about adaptability is continuing to have the focus that umthings will change and that as industry changes and as industry improvements come that we have the ability to adaptuh such that we can improve recyclability across uh all of our portfolio. Next slide.Okay, great. So I’m going to talk a little bit about future work and some of the resourcesthat we have available. So you know we spoke about lightweing inan all PE pouch design but in addition to those you know really key critical pieces there are also otheropportunities for Stonyfield and other consumer package goods brands to work towards improving packagingsustainability as it relates to pouches but also as it relates to you know the entire packaging portfolio. Um the keyareas that we’ve identified at a at a really high level are you know initiatives to promote potential futurepouch recyclability um integrating other sustainability attributes and thenaddressing other types of packaging. So when we think about promoting, you know, potential future recyclability,um that really helps support improved end of life outcomes for this packaging format. Um opportunities that existsare, you know, extending pouch improvements to all pouch SKUs. Um asBridget mentioned, you know, we’ve improved um the the pouches onat this point on some non-yo baby SKUs. Um but there are certainly opportunitiesto expand this work elsewhere. Um as we mentioned earlier, you know,Stonyfield is engaged with CheerPac, which is working towards obtaining APR designed for recyclability recognitionfor these pouch packaging improvements to denote, you know, technical recyclability given the ALP PE pouchdesign and the fact that, you know, this pouch was designed using these APR best practices. Um there’s alsoopportunities, you know, at on a more large scale to support flexible packaging, recycling infrastructure. Aswe mentioned, that’s a key barrier um to making pouches recyclable regardless ofhow they’re designed, right? Um then you know in terms of integrating other sustainability attributes um youknow this can help support other sustain uh Stonyfield sustainable packaging targets and also help prepare for uhextended producer responsibility regulation. So looking at things like exploring postconumer recycled resin andbiio-based resins where it makes sense to um uh thinking about reusable andrefillable options, thinking about how that can uh play a part in all of this work and then you know consideringmaterial replacement as part of a more holistic packaging strategy. And youknow, to be clear, each of these topics is not without their intense challenges, right? And and many many trade-offs, butit’s important to think about these options as they relate to the packaging landscape at Stonyfield and really as asa whole across the US and and globally as well. Um, and then another piece isalso um to address other types of packaging. So, you know, as I mentioned earlier, Stonyfield has a list of of keyhotspots, right? keep packaging hotspots where there are really a lot of opportunities. Um, and so assessingthose and understanding the impacts of of addressing those hot spots is really key to meeting targets and reducing theimpact of Stonyfield’s entire packaging portfolio.So to help others progress on their pouch sustainability journeys, Stonyfield developed two publiclyavailable resources. Um the first is a case study um that outlines Stonyfield’sjourney to improve pouch sustainability to date. Uh this case study includes alot of what we talked about today but includes details related to the context for implementing this work keychallenges uh associated with pouches uh the delineation of different phases ofthis work uh description of the different stakeholders engaged and and many other details. Um, the secondresource is a how-to guide. And, um, Melanie will include the links in thechat if she hasn’t already, so you all can access these. Um, but the second resource is a how-to guide, which isreally a more tactical step-by-step resource that outlines how consumer package goods brands can improve thesustainability of their pack pouch packaging. So this guides in the the guide really includes considerations andrecommendations related to things like how to evaluate different improvement opportunities. Um how to designpackaging for sustainability, shelf life, quality and processability. Umuh thinking through testing packaging for functionality and quality.um empowering your teams crossf functionally or specifically within the packaging um function to support thiswork internally. Um how to track sustainability impacts once you doimplement or if you’re thinking about implementing this this work um and many other topics as well. Uh so we know thateveryone is starting from a different point in their journey. So we wanted to provide our contact information here soyou had the opportunity to reach out to us directly obviously the Stonyfield team to learn more specifically abouttheir journey. Um and then pure strategies if you want to considerhow to think about pouch packaging sustainability as it relates to your holistic packaging strategy. um wewanted to provide our information so you could reach out to us because um I know the Stonyfield team reached out to otherfolks across their journey and that was really helpful um as part of their as part of the the process towards pouchsustainability. So I wanted to leave that there. Um and so with that I think we are readyto hop into a Q&A period. It looks like we have some great questions on deck. Umlet’s see. So maybe the first question I see is related to EPR. Um andrecyclability. So maybe we’ll first touch on EPR andthen we can talk about the definition of recyclability and what recyclabilitymeans for this pouch. Um so as Britt mentioned earlier um extended producerresponsibility regulations are a set of state level laws for packaging and paper products um that assign producersproducers meaning brands and manufacturers the um financial operational or both uh responsibilityfor the end of life of their products rather than the consumer.Um so EPR packaging laws include this element called ecom modulation and thatoutlines the fees that a producer is required to pay based on the packagingthat they produce. Um these fees can incentivize packaging design andmaterial choices um things like that that can help reduce environmental impact. Right now there’s a lot in flux.um you know this year being the first year that many companies had to report against uh some states EPR regulations.So there’s a lot in flux in terms of like what are the exact fees associated with ecom modulation. So I don’t want tototally speak to that at this moment but you know we know that things like increasing recycled content andlightweing packaging materials improving recyclability are some of the factors that are being considered for ecommodulation in some states. Um you know a quick example that I want to talk aboutisam uh is Oregon is considering umas part of its ecom modulation program um Oregon is consideringum benefits to producers that disclose a package’s life life cycle environmentalimpacts and also that reduce those life cycle impacts as well. So that’s just anexample of um some things that are in the mix for EPR regulations.Um, in terms of recyclability, um, as Bridget mentioned, you know, the pouchis not technically recyclable or it’s it’s not recyclable curbside in its current state, right?There are still many barriers that exist to making it curbside recyclable. Umthere are many definitions of what recyclable means but you know for example the US Federal Trade Commissionwhich is a a key definition that many use is um the FTC says a package isrecyclable when it can be collected separated or otherwise recovered from a waist stream through an establishedrecycling program for reuse or use in manufacturing or assembling another item provided that recycling facilities areavailable for at least 60% of consumers or communities where that item is sold. Right? So that’s one example of adefinition. Um different states as as uh someone has mentioned here have their own definitions of recyclability. So umyou know by that definition the pouch is not yet recyclable. However the redesignand making an all polyethylene design um really aims for potential futureacceptance in recycling streams. Um so you know while it’s not currentlyrecyclable um the design has been updated such thatwhen future recycling systems become available an all polyethylene pouch umhas better endmarket viability because it is all one material. That’s a highleum response to that. Um, can you tell me if the new structure uh compromisedshelf life? Um, Bridget, I wonder if that’s a question for you. Yeah. No, I can answer that question.No, the the new materials were compatible with our current shelf life. Um, again, we did extended studies toensure um that shelf life was because it is critical. We live in the United States and shelf life uh when you’redistributing across a country as large as ours, we need to ensure that uh ourproduct is stable and that it is uh consistent. So there was no change uhwhen changing from the multilaminate to a single mono material.Excellent. Um we’re getting a question. This is an an interesting question. Umdid you see any impact either positive or negative on product sales or on netpromoter scores with customers um from the new pouch packaging design?Good question. I think um I can’t give the exact answers because I’m not in sales, but I can tell you that thegrowth format related to pouches has been um strong. Um, as Brett indicatedearlier from the kids category, it’s a, you know, it’s growing at a 10% rate higher than uh the other pack groups. Umand I think that the we we know from our studies that uh ourprimary consumer um actually purchaser so we’ll say momis very concerned about the materials um that they are exposing their families toand very considerate towards sustainability. So for us it is a critical aspect to ensure that element.Great. Um, somebody wants to know about yourstrategy for engaging key internal stakeholders. So, can you speak a littlebit to engaging management um and seuite and potentially others uh within thecompany as well? Sure. Um so leadership is always uhcritical right to any of these endeavors and I think it’s important um that bothStonyfield as Britt identified has does have SBTI targets so does our parentcompany Lactalis so with that by having um a critical governance that indicatesthat these are the targets that we are trying to achieve it helps us then establishum the consistent and the drive to create a packaging road map that gave us the opportunity to identify pouches inparticular. Once um we matched both the the fact that Stonyfield is amissiondriven company, we have a packaging roadmap and then thatleadership is also committed to sustainability and understanding that that we were able to present a pathforward to leadership that showed how we were able to tie all of these elements together. And with that um our um ourmanagement along with marketing and the brand believed that it was critical toum tie pouches with that key growth uh to an area to focus on this opportunityfor work.Great. Um Bridge, I’m wondering if you can speak to engaging others within the organization as well. um you know inaddition to to management and leadership yeah I mean engagement of others uh ischallenging right so you it starts with education it’s critical to make sure that um you spend time to explain thewhy of what you’re doing um you need to be able to educate both um the managersthe leadership as well as those people on the plant floor that are going to be impacted by the changes that you’rerecommending um and then help educate them. This is why we’re doing it. Help me help you kind of situation to improvewhat you’re experiencing. So, the criticality of trials is really important. Um, but with that comeschallenges. As we all know, we’re trying to produce. We want to ensure that we’re not impacting our capacity and ourability to meet the consumer demands and the volumes. Um but it does require usto build in time uh such that we can execute trials so that way we canexplore and solve problems that we are actually potentially creating when it comes to operational efficiencies. So,um it really uh requires a partnership and and the only way to do that is tocommunicate to go on the floor to work together and I would say that includes bringing in your suppliersum and having them also participate on the floor try to brainstorm to some ofthe challenges and uh work towards those new solutions. Great. Thank you. Um the next questionis related to the technology and the packaging materials. So um are you aware of whether or not this uh technology isopen sourced and um will Amcor share the tech with other manufacturers?Unfortunately I don’t have that information. Mhm. Well, I Bridgetette, I think we can saythat at this point there are multiple packaging suppliers that do offer amonollayer PE pouch format and there are other refrigerated pouches in the marketthat have started using at least one other that has started using this monollayer pouch. So, I I’m not surethat any of these packaging suppliers would actually open source their production methods, but I think it’sbecoming more widely available uh for processors who are looking for thisformat. Great.Um we have some questions about shipping and tariffs um on decision- making. So,um, how, you know, we have some questions related to the manufacturer of the pouches, um, and,um, where they’re located and how have they been responding to this, but I’m also curious about the impact and thethinking that Stonyfield is doing with respect to shipping and tariffs.Good question. Um so you know as it comes to tariffs obviously um allbusinesses are concerned uh and are monitoring as it is a very dynamic timeuh in our country as it relates to um to tariffs and to packaging formats etc. UmI think it definitely is influencing procurement strategies um from a largerscale in regards to um making sure you understand uh what percentage of yourportfolio is internal to the US versus external. Um buta lot of these partnerships are long-term partnerships. They’re international agreements. Um and so it’snot something that changes overnight. Um and so we we’ve maintained our ourcurrent strategy. Um but um I think as with most uh people will be looking atare there internal US-based sources for umfor your materials but at the same time does it have the same quality? Does it meet the same requirements etc. Sothere’s it’s a it’s a very complicated question uh to answer simply um and uh Ithink it’s unique to every company depending on the type of materials that we’re talking about.Thanks Bridget. Um the next question is related to greenhouse gas reductions. Umand so uh the question is related to how like where the greenhouse gas reductionsare coming from. um and talking about the greenhouse gasreductions associated with shipping and logistics. Um maybe I can start speakingto this and then and then Bridget or Brit you can you can speak to this a little bit. So right now the greenhousegas reductions are coming from simply using less material, right? So if you use less plastic that means you produceless plastic, right? Um in your final product. So that’s really where Stonyfield is currently claiming thegreenhouse gas reductions, which is a really straightforward thing to account for. Um, what is a little bit trickieris trying to quantify the shipping greenhouse gas reductions associatedwith that reduced weight. Right. As as Bridget mentioned, you know, the pouch reduction is what point4 grams I believeyou mentioned. Um, for the lid, the cap. For the cap. Exactly. which is you know quite small on its ownbut compounded over the many many many pouches that Stonyfield produces umcreate a huge impact. What is a little challenging about quantifying the impact of logistics is um logistics is allcalculated together, right? So you’re shipping quarts with pouches with smallcups and so it’s really challenging um to separate the gains just associatedwith the pouches when the you know logistics and transportation system isoptimizing to reduce the total number of stops, right? to make sure those truckloads are as full as possible. So,it’s really hard to parse just the pouch piece out, but it is something that we are actively thinking about and umsomething that we are also curious to to quantify just for the pouches.Yeah. And I would add that you know as we discussed that this is part of our journey. Um as we lightweight caps thatmeans that those caps are smaller which means that they take less room in a fourpack or whatever size format thatwe’re we’re doing. And then we can look at reductions related to our corrugate etc. So as as part of the journey it isa it’s a very small piece and you know as Ariel indicated it is critical for us to u quantify and so from a simpleperspective we focused on the plastic and the lightweing. Um it is it’s veryfactual and it doesn’t require a lot of subjectivity. Um so that was uh our ourdecision at this time. Um it may be a bit conservative but um it is um something that we feel very stronglyabout. Great. Um, you know, coming back to the pointthat this pouch is not yet recyclable, right? And Stony Field can’t, you know, even though Stony Field has done allthis work in this redesign, yes, from a lightweighting perspective, but also to create an all PE pouch, you know, whatare wins andor claims that Stonyfield is thinking through um to help celebratethis good work that’s happening that we know is supporting potential future recyclability. Ourwinds are Go ahead, Brett. Well, you know the as you’re saying, wereally can’t claim recyclability. So, it’s limited in terms of what we cancall a win here. This is really about planning for the future and setting the stage for the world that we want to bein uh years down the road. So, um, for now, we’re we’re we’re just continuingto do the work and looking to other packaging formats next for makingfurther improvements. And, you know, in the future, we hope someday we can put a recyclable label on this product.Yeah. Right. And if I could add, it’s it’s having conversations like these and adding a lot of context behind thiswork, you know, and not just simply making a blanket claim and and providing the details and background as to whydecisions were made. I think um it can be challenging to communicate these things sometimes, but um you know, frommy experience working with you all, it’s very important to the Stonyfield team to get that communication piece right.Absolutely. Um let’s see what else we have. Umengagement with retailers. Um how have you been engaging with retailers onmaybe this or um other types of packaging sustainability efforts to date or you know if maybe there haven’t beendirect um engagements um what are some thoughts you have about that?Do you want to talk Brit or Sure I can I can share that we do make sure that um our sales team has theinformation about the work that we’ve done on our pouches so that when they’re meeting with retailers they can talkabout this. We are also participating in some larger packaging working groupsthat retailers also participate in so that we can learn from each other andand share information along the way. Um so we’re we’re looking to elevate thiswork. It kind of ties back to the previous question, right? like we want to be have a having a conversation aboutwhat we are doing with pouches even though they’re not yet to this fully recyclable phase.Great. Um something maybe I want to hear a little bit more about are what are someof the challenges you continue to encounter in this space?Good question. Um you know I think um we we will continue to have challenges inum in packaging recyclability as we’ve indicated um we are waiting for industryand technology to mature or advance enough that allows us to have this fullrecyclable u vision that we have with potential recyclability. So it’s that’sa key, but I think it’s an industry it’s a whole industry issue. Um I think uhthat recycled content is how are we equipping processes with the tools and the technology to process and sort youknow um the expanding of curbside recycling across the entire um industryin the US is hindering a big piece of this aspect and as recycling programsare changed and governed town to town um it continues to uh to be an item thatthen becomes a much bigger picture that we need to to work through. Um thechallenges as we’ve indicated you know in working with APR recognition is umhow do we make it compatible? Um what what additional modifications do we needto make in order to um be um to becompliant with APR’s um recyclability recognition uhplatform. So to me, those are big pieces. Uh we’re making strategies umbut continuing to to get that success isI would say our primary challenge. Great. Thank you so much, Bridget. So itlooks like that is really all the time we have for today. Um, we hope that youenjoyed our session on Stonyfield sustainable packaging work. Um, thank you all for your time and attention. Aspecial thank you to Britt and Bridget for um, your time and your insights andyour openness. Um, if you didn’t get the opportunity to ask your question today,um, and would like to learn more about Stonyfield’s work or how to get started on your packaging journey, please feelfree to reach to reach out to, uh, Bridget, Britt, or myself. And withthat, hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you all so much.Bye. You. tight in