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Gary Hirshberg: Changing the Culture and 'Stirring It Up

I've long been an admirer of Gary Hirshberg, the idealistic and iconoclastic "CE-Yo" of organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm, which he co-founded in 1983. Read More

(Updated on July 24, 2024)

I’ve long been an admirer of Gary Hirshberg, the idealistic and iconoclastic “CE-Yo” of organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm,
which he co-founded in 1983. I first met Hirshberg a decade later, in
1993, when researching my book about corporate social responsibility, Beyond the Bottom Line.
I recall being impressed at the time by his passion and commitment, but
also his humbleness and honesty. “I think whatever your definition is
of social responsibility,” he told me at the time, “if the message is,
‘Look how great we are,’ then you’re missing the boat.” It was a
refreshing change from so many companies’ arm-waving,
self-congratulatory approaches to social responsibility, both then and
now.

Hirshberg not only didn’t miss
the boat, he caught a wave, becoming the market leader in organic
yogurt, the third best-seller after Dannon and Yoplait, with steady
annual growth. In 2001, Stonyfield hitched a ride with a much bigger
vessel, the French food conglomerate Danone, which subsequently took
controlling interest in the company but left Hirshberg firmly at the
helm. Indeed, in the deal, Danone ended up with about 80% of the
company, but Hirshberg ended up with majority control of his board.

All of which further empowered
Hirshberg to pursue, and align, his dual missions of commerce and
environmental sustainability. His $300 million-a-year company – built
with almost no traditional advertising – has been carbon neutral since
1996, the first company to do so, long before it became corporate chic.
And it’s not just by writing a check to offset its emissions. Over the
past decade, the company (via the tireless efforts of Hirshberg’s
sister, Nancy, Stonyfield’s VP of Natural Resources) has reduced its
facility energy use and the associated carbon emissions per pound of
product by one-third. Stonyfield’s products are 100% organic, and it
has helped hundreds of family farms convert from conventional farming.
The company has worked to minimize waste, going so far as to collect
used yogurt cups and lids and recycle them into useful products. And it
uses its product labeling for activism, devoting precious real estate
on yogurt lids to advance environmental causes.

Hirshberg’s company has been an ardent supporter of such causes. Stonyfield’s Profits for the Planet
program has given 10% of company profits to organizations “that help
protect and restore the environment.” Hirshberg got Danone to agree to
maintain the program for at least 10 years after he leaves the company,
whenever that is; he has no plans to do so. And he has funded his own
campaigns, lately focusing on climate change. (I sit on the board of Climate Counts,
which Hirshberg launched last year to rate companies on their climate
commitment and performance. In 2006, I also co-wrote and executive
produced a Stonyfield funded Internet movie on climate change.)

I talked with Hirshberg recently on the occasion of his just-published book, Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World.
It was a wide-ranging conversation, focusing not just on his company
but the larger worlds of green marketing and green business. (An
excerpt from that interview can be heard on GreenBiz Radio.)

I don’t usually care for books
like this – the success stories of socially-minded entrepreneurs.
There’s been a steady stream of them over the years, and they tend to
border on vanity publishing. So, I was pleased that Hirshberg’s
offering doesn’t follow in this mold. It’s an easy, enjoyable read,
inspiring and informative, integrating his personal journey with
insights and takeaways for others.

It’s clear that Hirshberg’s
zeal goes well beyond yogurt, or organics, or climate change. He sees
his mission in part to infect other businesses – both entrepreneurs and
conglomerates – to help them understand the potential for producing
products, and profits, while following the basic tenets of
environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

Perhaps ironically,
Hirshberg’s entrepreneurial journey was inspired by the food giant
Kraft: After touring a Kraft-sponsored pavilion on the future of food
at Disney World’s Epcot Center in Florida in 1982, he decided he wanted
to build a company that was everything Kraft was not. He was struck by
the fact that 25,000 people came through that exhibit every day – about
the same number that visited the New Alchemy Institute, the nonprofit
he ran at the time, every year. As he told me: “I said to my mom, who
was the senior buyer down at the Epcot Center, ‘I need to become Kraft,
if I want to move my values and my ecologic proposition into the
mainstream. I’ve got to have that kind of reach.’ I wanted to become
as efficient as they were in reaching the consumer.”

Funny thing is, he pretty much
did it. Fourteen years after that epiphany, Stonyfield passed Kraft in
sales of yogurt, and has really never looked back. Its yogurt business
is now five times Kraft’s.

But there’s an even more
delicious irony. Kraft has recently begun making organic products:
Macaroni & Cheese, Cheese Singles, Oreos, and more. Says Hirshberg:
“The reality is that while I set out to be like Kraft, I’m now very
pleased to tell you they’ve set up to be like us.”

Talk about just desserts.

———————————————

(Postscript:
I’ll be conducting a one-on-one interview with Hirshberg on February
19, at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. The event isn’t yet
posted on the club’s site, but should be soon. Check back here for details and tickets.)

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