Good Enough to Eat

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Fedele Bauccio | photo by James Goodin

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Margaret Wittenberg | photo by Randal Ford

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Clean, Healthy Food

Jeff Seabright
VP, Environment and Water Resources
The Coca-Cola Co.
Atlanta, Georgia

Water Runs Deep

Jeff Seabright, 53, has to figure out how to clean the 290 billion liters of water Coca-Cola and its bottlers use to make its products, ensuring future water supplies for the company -- and local communities.

"We are effectively a hydration company, so it's a business risk for us if water is not readily available. Whether we draw water from a municipality or extract groundwater, we've really pushed ourselves to understand the full 360 on water: from a watershed perspective, a social context, and in our plant use. In India, we're funding rainwater-capture devices and drip irrigation, offsetting our use. In Guatemala, we're working to clean up a watershed that feeds into the world's second-largest marine reef -- and our bottling plant. From 2002 to 2006, product volume increased 14%, and the amount of water used to make that product decreased 6%. Right now, 84% of the water we use to produce our products is fully treated and returned to the environment, safe for aquatic life. Our goal is to get to 100% by 2010."

Fedele Bauccio
Cofounder and CEO
Bon Appétit Management Co.
Palo Alto, California

Off the Menu

Fedele Bauccio, 66, has instituted a sustainable-food program at the 400-plus eateries that Bon Appétit manages, from university dining halls to the DreamWorks commissary.

"I like a great hamburger as much as anyone does, but once we learned that livestock operations produce 18% of all worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions, exceeding even transportation, we committed to reducing our meat consumption. We moved away from industrially raised meat to natural-beef burgers that have less water. We found that a 4-ounce natural-beef patty tastes better and cooks to the same size as a conventional 5-ounce patty. If you can convince customers about the importance of what you're doing, tell a story, and offer great-tasting food, you will get higher sales that will cover a couple of percentage points in higher costs. In the first nine months, we cut our beef consumption 23%."

Margaret Wittenberg
Global VP, Quality Standards and Public Affairs
Whole Foods Market
Austin, Texas

The Morningstar of Meat

Margaret Wittenberg, 56, has been working on Whole Foods' meat standards for eight years. Under a system being rolled out this year, meat sold at the chain will receive a 1-to-5 rating, based on animal-welfare protocols audited by a third party. It is the first such graded system anywhere for meats.

"Whole Foods had required basic animal welfare in what we sold -- no antibiotics or hormones -- but felt we needed to do more. We invited animal-welfare groups and scientists to join us at the table with producers to tackle all the species: ducks, beef cattle, pigs, broiler chickens, sheep, turkeys. Many minds can do good work if you're intent on making something happen. After five years, we settled on a system that recognizes that there can be variation as well as continuous improvement. To rate a 4, for example, animals must have continuous access to pasture. I'm picky about what I eat. If I didn't believe in the process we've created, I wouldn't be eating meat."

Henry and Lisa Lovejoy
Founders
EcoFish
Dover, New Hampshire

A Cleaner Catch

Henry and Lisa Lovejoy, 44 and 45, respectively (pictured with Sherpa, their 14-year-old English setter), are the largest sellers of sustainably caught and chemical-free farm-raised fish in the country. EcoFish, whose products are available in 1,000 groceries and 150 restaurants, is growing by more than 50% a year.

Henry: "Our number-one mission in launching this company was to make sure the fish we sold were sustainably caught or produced on fish farms that didn't pollute or use antibiotics. When we've visited fish auctions, we've seen juvenile tuna for sale that hadn't yet reproduced. The fish were a commodity. Price was all that mattered.

We created the Henry & Lisa's Natural Seafood brand, so consumers could make a sustainable choice without having to navigate all the complexities of the market. Sustainable seafood is viewed as expensive, but there are options at every price. Alaskan pollock wholesales for $1 a pound, and we use it in our fish sticks. Our marinated Alaskan salmon retails for $3.75 a portion."