Goal: Start a professional environmental committee focused on reducing industrial wastes

​

Accounting for the trash, packaging scrap, energy, water, and additional wastes, we were not being very sustainable. I felt I needed to do anything I could to change that.

 

____________________________________

​

​

Completed: February 8th, 2018

​

• Why? I quickly recognized upon starting my job straight out of college that it wasn't what I wanted to be doing forever. The primary reason was that food-processing wasn't what I was passionate about. By developing this committee, I could incorporate my passion of environmental conservation into my career.

• What was the biggest obstacle?  Any improvements to our process could not negatively affect business functionality or food safety. I had to find a balance between what changes I wanted to make and what the business needed.

• What was the biggest motivation?  I could make such a large impact through this committee. Food processing is a wasteful industry by nature, as many are. Our facility was large; we processed roughly 800,000 pounds of liquid egg 5 days a week. Accounting for the trash, packaging scrap, energy, water, and additional wastes, we were not being very sustainable. I felt I needed to do anything I could to change that.

 

 

How It Happened:​

     I was very fortunate working for this company; my relationship with my supervisor was about as perfect as you could ask for. She had high expectations for me but never left me feeling like I was without the resources that I needed to thrive. It was great. While I did have daily interaction with her, we made sure to set a time each month to officially sit down and talk about how things were going, from both my perspective and hers.

     A few months in, I gained the courage to admit to her that things didn't quite feel right for me. While day-to-day work was going well, I shared that there was a problem: 

​

I was feeling lost; my job wasn't focused on any of my passions.

 

     Now, it would have been understandable for her to respond in a variety of ways. After all, she did just finish training me, and there I was trying to politely explain to her that I wasn't proud of what I (or she) was doing. That's a lot to process, but she responded the best way I could have imagined. She wanted to help. We talked about my passions. Some of them - such as organic agriculture - weren't applicable to our facility's business. But, environmental conservation and sustainability were. Given my previous leadership experience, desire to focus on my values, and the plant's need for sustainable improvements, we decided that it would be highly beneficial for me to start a committee focused on sustainable practice. To give the committee a reasonable scope, I aimed to focused on reducing wastes in three areas:

• Trash

• Water

• Electricity​

​

     After determining a scope, I continued to plan. At the time, I was taking a series of project-management lectures through Cargill and used a lot of lessons from that to ensure success in the founding of the committee. "Have a plan for your plan" was my mantra. Because of the committee's importance to me, I didn't want to rush into hosting my first meeting and find myself completely unprepared. I spoke with upper management on what their hopes/expectations were, created an agenda, gathered resources, and spoke with other employees about getting involved.

​

     The first meeting was a success, as were many others following. We identified opportunities for improvement and then determined actions to take. Each action item was assigned to an "asset owner" who could follow through with it and report at the next meeting. That was very helpful. I enjoyed the fast pace and productivity of the meetings; it kept members engaged and ensured we would remain on track for improvements.

 

Ultimately, this goal was rewarding to me in more ways than I imagined. I was able to dig out old leadership skills and inspire change.

I took the initiative that no one else had.

Let me tell you, that felt great. The company had hired me to function as a food safety lead, and while I happily fulfilled that role, I found myself leaving a greater, unexpected mark on the company that was more "me".