CLASSIC FOODS SUSTAINABILITY

OUR PROMISE TO THE EARTH
While we at Classic Foods take great pride in our all-natural chips, we realize that could not happen without the help of someone more important and talented than us: Mother Earth. So we have made a commitment to leave the earth in better shape than we received it. And it’ s not just about the smallest carbon footprint; it’ s about being good stewards. Sustainability is our social responsibility.

Our Plants
All of our plants are located in small towns in which the local employees commute only a short distance to work. At the same time, these small communities benefit from increased employment opportunities, an added incentive to staying in these smaller towns. Additionally, in order to conserve as much energy as possible, we do our best to locate our plants near the raw materials (potatoes, oil, corn and wheat), saving abundantly on time and production. Potatoes are roughly 80% water, which we will eventually evaporate, thus it is more efficient to transport cooked Kettle Classics® than the raw potatoes themselves.

Our growers, like ourselves, operate mostly family-owned farms. They rotate their crops to keep the soil enriched with nutrients as well as use bio-diesel fuel whenever possible.

Our plants are business smart, eco-friendly, and overall very efficient:

• All raw waste is recycled and sold as cattle feed
• Our waste oil gets converted into bio-diesel fuel
• The starch from the potatoes is separated, stored, dried and sold as paper filler
• All our corn is air dried, rather than force dried
• All recyclable packaging material is recycled

Water Conservation
We have completed retrofitting all of our extruders in our Irvine plant. Normally, this type of equipment requires running water for refrigeration to be discarded, but now it has the capability to recycle and refrigerate the water it uses in order to put it back into the system, thus reducing the amount of water we use. We will also be replacing natural gas with electricity whenever possible.

Our Packaging
A diverse company with a wide selection of products, we package our products in a variety of sizes. Most of our bags are made from poly material, which is better for the environment, although not quite perfect. For that reason, we are committed to finding and using compostable materials in the very near future. Our ultimate objective is to start using biodegradable and/or recyclable materials in our packaging. Balancing product quality and the shelf-life of our products remains our challenge.

Our Boxes
In order to ship our chips with the same quality and care with which we make them, we must carefully separate the bags and place them in boxes. Even in the way we make our boxes, we use environmentally sound material and support the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (as you will find the label on each box). We work to reuse our boxes whenever possible, as well as recycle the boxes that can no longer be reused.

Powered by Biodiesel
A new partnership with States Logistics has not only brought us a reliable source for transportation, but a clean source of energy as well. These 53 footers are fueled with Biodiesel and can be seen driving through California, Arizona and Nevada. We hope to grow this test with more of our transportation companies.

The SFI Standard requires participants to employ an auditable system to characterize the forest practices on the lands where they procure raw material. This is done by auditing the on-the-ground practices for a portion of the wood that is supplied to their processing facilities. The program emphasizes reforestation, the utilization of best management practices and enhancing the professional capacity of wood production operations. The SFI labeling program also recognizes landowners certified under the American Tree Farm System® and Canadian Standards Association (CSA) programs, who supply raw materials to SFI program participants as a source equivalent to forests certified under the SFI program for fiber sourcing labels. In addition to the procurement system, the SFI Standard requires participants to support various training and education programs, all of which is designed to assist landowners in improving their capacity to practice sustainable forestry on all types of forestlands.

At the Office
Paperless Office
Through electronic communication and EDI, we are striving for a paper free business wherever possible.

E-mail
When receiving an email from a Classic Foods employee, you will notice that the signature is more than a simple name. We have incorporated a friendly reminder to conserve paper as often as possible. Embedded in a purple silhouette field of wheat it says “Please consider the environment before printing this email.”

Recycle Bins
We have bins throughout our offices for paper, plastic, and glass, which are then taken to recycle centers on a weekly basis.

Transportation
Carpool is encouraged, and whenever we are in an urban area, we look for locations close to mass transportation. Our Irvine, CA office is conveniently situated near a train station, an amenity that many employees take advantage of by commuting daily to work by train.

Water
To save plastic on water bottles, our lunchrooms are equipped with water coolers for employees to enjoy icy cold or steamy hot water whenever they do so choose.

Warehouse
All of our forklifts run off propane rather than diesel fuel.