March 11, 1999
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.