Clif Bar Zero Waste Audit

The Challenge

Since 2001, Clif Bar & Company (Clif Bar) has been committed to reducing ecological impact and engaged in sustainability. Opened in 2016, the Clif Bar Twin Falls Baking Facility is a sustainability-focused facility featuring innovations such as green building and biophilic design elements. As of fall 2018, the facility had achieved 95% landfill waste diversion.

In 2018, the Twin Falls facility set the goal of achieving Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) True Zero Waste Certification. Clif Bar hired Warm Springs Consulting to support this zero waste initiative. The primary goal for the audit was to produce reliable estimates of the composition/categorization and quantity of waste generated from different areas and operations of the baking facility and included:

• Set a benchmark for waste diversion

• Support USGBC Zero Waste Facility Certification

• Maximize resource efficiency

• Find solutions and set forth recommendations for achieving zero waste

The Solution

WSC worked with Clif Bar to develop a waste audit methodology. WSC conducted a site walkthrough as to observe collection systems, waste generation, and diversion practices throughout the facility. WSC then prepared for the audit by working with sanitation staff and facility managers to label and set aside waste a few days ahead of time.

“I wish we brought WSC in so much earlier than we did. If we had brought them in 18 months earlier it would have been a game changer. We spent so much time trying to find out how to recycle things. It would have saved us thousands of hours.”   

– Wade Allred, Environmental Health Safety and Sustainability Manager, Clif Bar Baking Company