SLED receives $5,000 grant.

St. Louis Earth Day has received a $5,000 grant from ConAgra Foods, awarded through their Sustainable Development program which challenges employees to reduce the environmental impacts at their respective facilities and brands. Employee groups compete against each to receive a $5,000 grant to invest in an environmentally focused service project in their community.

The St. Louis Egg Beaters project “Hands On Yield” was an Award of Excellent winner and selected St. Louis Earth Day as the beneficiary of its $5,000 grant! Intense work and a strong collaborative spirit at the ConAgra St. Louis Egg Beaters facility resulted in a yield loss reduction of 59 percent. That’s 55 fewer truckloads of raw material needed to produce the same amount of finished product.

As Ryan Miller, the Environmental, Health and Safety Manager of the St. Louis Egg Beaters project, explained, “Through yield loss reductions, we constructed a foundation for eco-efficiency at our facility. Delivery of safe, quality Egg Beaters is satisfying consumers’ needs, while reducing environmental impacts and natural resource intensity.”

Employees from the St. Louis Egg Beaters facility have volunteered at the St. Louis Earth Day Festival for the past two years, usually helping with the event’s Recycling On the Go effort.

On stage at Pride Fest accepting a check from Ryan and Brad of the St. Louis Egg Beaters facility.

The 2012 Sustainable Development Awards and Conference was held on April 10th in Omaha, Nebraska, where project summaries of the 25 finalists vying for a 2012 Sustainable Development Award were on display. Finalists were chosen by a review committee composed of individuals from the newly formed Good for the Planet council — a cross-functional group of ConAgra Foods leaders committed to promoting and executing the company’s sustainability strategies.

A record 101 project entries were received this year, reflecting employees’ passion for doing the right thing and aligning with the company’s corporate responsibility platform — “Good for you. Good for the community. Good for the planet.”

“The passion you have is contagious,” CEO Gary Rodkin told attendees at the ceremony, which drew nearly 200 people from across the enterprise. “It is because of efforts like yours that ConAgra Foods has earned a place on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the first time.” He applauded the progress employees have made toward minimizing the company’s environmental footprint.

Over the past year, ConAgra Foods’ Sustainable Development program decreased the company’s carbon footprint by 43,600 metric tonnes, reduced generated waste by 10,000 tons, diverted 61,000 tons of solid waste from landfills, conserved 295 million gallons of water, reduced the amount of product packaging by more than 4,800 tons, and generated cost savings of more than $28 million.