Sustainable Food Laboratory

As VP of Corporate Social Responsibility at US Foodservice, Kim Brown is often caught between a sense of personal and corporate responsibility on the one hand and a market that until recently has signaled indifference to doing what’s right on the other.

U.S. Foodservice joined the Sustainable Food Lab to help negotiate that divide and at the December meeting of the Lab’s Business Coalition she found something she was looking for.

“Here’s tangible evidence that SFL can give something back to companies for their membership,” she said.

Brown walked away from that meeting with a “Call To Action” – a collective and pubic recognition of the influence and responsibility that business leaders of global food and have – and an associated “Self-Assessment Tool” by which businesses can identify high priority issues and set targets for environmental and social improvements.

Why is this important?

Because it provides a baseline. Brown explained that because she knows other companies are doing this, to be on the playing field, her company needs to do it to. It’s also a useful process.

“Internally it allows us to see how we’re shaking out and to see areas we need to focus on that most outside NGO’s would be asking us to respond to. And we can use it with our suppliers.”

The Self-Assessment tool provides a way for U.S. Foodservice to guide improvements internally and communicate to their suppliers what they care about and what it will take to be a supplier of choice.

Food Lab member Tensie Whelan, Executive Director of Rainforest Alliance attended the Business Coalition meeting and created a near complete draft of the assessment tool on the spot.

Brown said, “Her breadth of knowledge is what you’re looking for as a business member joining a network like this. She added a dimension and perspective and her ability to bring the assessment tool to us I thought was fantastic.”

The call itself was an outgrowth of work done by Gene Kahn at General Mills who put together the framework. From there, coming up with the call was still anything but easy.

“The process we went through in December was painful," she said. But she credits the SFL leadership with what they were able to produce.

“I was really impressed. They were able to turn all of that discussion into a document that made sense and reflected the type of commitment that most of the coalition members agree with,” she said.

Brown stressed that it's important not to make too much of it.

“From where we were, its significant because it clearly articulates a focus and tangible deliverables but it’s just a document. Right now that’s where it stands,” she said.

The Call to Action and associated Self-Assessment Tool give structure and shape to an otherwise disparate and seemingly unruly set of efforts on the part of a variety of businesses. This approach is also proving helpful in motivating and guiding actions businesses can take during the off months between meetings. There is a long way to go but it’s a step.

“Little by little as more companies begin to operate to a minimum threshold, slowly but surely, changing the quality of products in terms of pesticides, energy and fuel efficiency, labor practicies and more, it’s changing the world,” Brown said.