Our commitment to sustainability is long standing. Alberto Culver was an early participant in a number of programs designed to monitor and reduce the environmental impact of our processes, products and packages.
For example, we have been a licensed member of the Green Dot recycling program for over 10 years and their recycling logo is placed on our packaging. We also support package recycling programs in the UK and Canada. Our plants have had programs to minimize the environmental impact of our product processes and we use external experts to help us develop new opportunities in the environmental world.
We have had a program in place to reduce packaging materials and to use recycled materials for the past 15 years. During that period, we have reduced package material weight by 20-25% on our major brands.
Beginning in 2007, we further enhanced our environmental efforts via dedicated resources and additional specific, long-term goals. A plant consolidation program has begun that will reduce energy use significantly when fully operational in 2009. We reduced landfill use by 10% in the past year and have a goal to make the new plant a zero landfill facility by 2010.
We use state of the art Cleaning & Sanitizing procedures to minimize the use of cleaning chemicals and water in our plants and also minimize the preservatives in our products.
We have initiated a program to document our Greenhouse Gas use worldwide and develop a plan to continually reduce our carbon footprint.
Alberto Culver is committed to protecting the environment and natural resources. We have systems in place requiring that each of our facilities characterize and understand the environmental impact of their operations, plan for emergencies and seek opportunities for continuous improvement.
Alberto Culver establishes goals that strive to reduce our overall consumption of resources, increasing the efficiency of our operations and minimizing the adverse effects of waste. Programs launched in 2008:
Global Climate Change (Greenhouse Gas) Program
Accountability is based on Operational Control to ensure that Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) are completely and consistently tracked from period to period, and among Alberto Culver operations.
The 2008 base year emissions represent a benchmark for measuring performance of the GHG inventory toward meeting corporate commitments, or specific corporate goals.
Global Waste Minimization Program
Piloting program at 3 manufacturing facilities in 2008 Launching program at all manufacturing facilities globally in 2009 As part of our overall commitment to social responsibility, Alberto Culver has established the following five year sustainability goals. These goals are based on the three R's - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This commitment is designed to insure that A-C can continue to grow consistently and responsibly, as we have done for the past 54 years.
We are making great progress toward increasing our sustainability programs. Over the last several years we have initiated a number of efforts to reduce waste and minimize our environmental impact. These efforts include reducing waste streams from our plants, reducing the weight of packaging materials and eliminating environmentally less desirable chemicals from our products and packaging. However, in the past year we have taken this program to a much higher standard and are making significant progress lead by Operations and an ad-hoc cross-functional Green Team. Some highlights are listed below.
We have eliminated over 90% of Melrose Park Plant waste as a result of increased recycling programs and expect to achieve zero landfill by 2010 in Melrose Park and Jonesboro. We are going to expand this effort globally in FY09 and achieve a 95% reduction versus the 2007 base year within 5 years.
The next phase of our program is to establish our greenhouse gas emissions using 2008 as the base year. We will then begin a systematic reduction using an outside certifying agency.