President of Stonyfield Farm to Speak at Middlebury

College

Gary Hirshberg Presents “Corporate Responsibility:

Tools for Change” on April 16

At 8 p.m. on Friday, April 16, Gary Hirshberg, president

and CEO of the natural yogurt and ice cream manufacturing company

Stonyfield Farm, will give a talk titled “Corporate Responsibility:

Tools for Change” at Middlebury College’s Kirk Alumni Conference

Center, on Route 30. Part of a conference at the College about

responsible campus consumerism, the talk is free and open to the

public.

Gary Hirshberg is an advocate who believes industry

and the community are inextricably linked. He serves on the board

of the Social Venture Network, an international association of

companies committed to the practice of corporate social responsibility.

He also chairs a sub-group of the White House’s Center for Environmental

Quality. In 1998, Hirshberg set a precedent by becoming the first

entrepreneur in New Hampshire to be honored with the two most

prestigious business awards: Business Leader of the Year, and

the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 1998 Small Business Person

of the Year (New Hampshire).

“When it comes to the most challenging problems

we face as a society—building self-esteem, closing the gap between

rich and poor, maintaining resources—it’s important that business

people…opt to embrace these challenges,” says Hirshberg.

Hirshberg has built Stonyfield Farm—a company based

in Londonderry, N.H. that makes refrigerated all-natural, certified

organic frozen yogurt and ice cream—into a model that shows environmentally

and socially responsible businesses can also be profitable. The

scope of the company’s corporate responsibility includes the donation

of 10% of pre-tax company profits—after 15% employee profit-sharing—to

environmental initiatives, implementation of energy efficiencies,

and recycling of more than 60% of the company’s wastes. The company

is also pro-active in the provision of a healthful and productive

workplace for all employees.

Committed to implementing a “zero emissions”

strategy for its manufacturing operations, Stonyfield Farm has

produced a booklet to help point other companies toward greener

technologies and practices good for the planet and the

bottom line. Patrick McGowan, the New England regional administrator

for the Small Business Association, said “Gary Hirshberg

provides every creative American entrepreneur with an outstanding

example of how business can be profitable and still do good.”

Now celebrating its 15th year of business, Stonyfield

Farm is the fastest growing yogurt company in the nation. The

company has experienced a 36% average annual growth rate over

the last eight years, and is projected to do more than $45 million

in sales in 1999.

Hirshberg, who lives in Concord, N.H., is married

and the father of three little yogurt-eaters.

For more information about the talk or the conference,

contact Middlebury College Environmental Coordinator Lily O’Leary

at 802-443-5043, or James Sharp at 802-229-0650.