As part of our commitment to Vermont agriculture and the landscape we have always made efforts toward creating greener products and an eco-friendly workplace. We believe that each small step contributes to a better environment and the preservation of the Earth.
At the farm we believe in sustainable practices:
- Our farmers adhere to best practices for manure management and land application
- Our farmers strive for optimum animal health and welfare
- Our farmers do not use growth hormones to increase milk production
- Our farms feed a mix of pasture, browse and harvested forage to maximize the use of their land base.
- Our average farm has 150-200 goats. Our herds are as small as 25 goats and as large as 700.
- Our cows’ milk and cream come from segregated herds who pledge not to use rBST.
Recycling:
- Recycle electronics
- Use recycled paper as much as we can
- Maintain receptacle for plastics, paper, cardboard
- Recycle ink jet cartridges
- All our whey is collected and picked up twice a day by a local farmer to be used as animal for his animals
Reuse:
- We reuse all the plastic bags that our packaging cups are sent in as garbage bags.
- After making the cheese we CIP (cleaning in place) our pipes, vat and pasteurizer with a reusable caustic solution that is turned over once a week – this helps to reduce our water and chemical usage.
Reduce:
- Working to eliminate Styrofoam, use recycled wood chips and recycled paper in shipping
- Audit our practices past and present in an effort to build our new creamery as green as possible using green power
- Paperless administration to reduce waste using emails – conference calls
- Car conscientious: one of our owners drives a hybrid car; salespeople take public transportation when available.
- Monitor power to reduce NRJ – almost all our machines are turned OFF during the night and each day we perform a progressive start-up (over 3 hours) to decrease the electricity pick demand.
A green creamery — We are an Efficiency Vermont Energy Saving Partner:
- During the construction design of our new aged cheese creamery we worked closely with Efficiency Vermont to lower our energy use and contribute to reducing Vermont greenhouse gases.
- Examples: energy star transformers – pumps – lighting – occupancy sensors – air cooled chillers…
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