{"id":8745,"date":"2023-12-01T12:10:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T11:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/?p=8745"},"modified":"2023-12-06T10:59:49","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T09:59:49","slug":"partnering-for-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/2023\/12\/partnering-for-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Partnering for Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) is committed to reducing its CO2 emissions to zero by 2045 or sooner\u00a0\u2013 a\u00a0goal that has required the company to \u00adanalyze its processes and machinery, among other things, in a\u00a0quest to make its operations greener. But the plant floor isn\u2019t the only place where FST is pursuing its goal. On 15\u00a0acres of land around the company\u2019s Corteco distribution center in Milan, Ohio, a\u00a0carbon-sequestering \u201cgreen carpet\u201d is hard at work, thanks to a\u00a0long-standing partnership with a\u00a0local business, The Chef\u2019s Garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The relationship began in 2010 when the Corteco group saw an opportunity to use The Chef\u2019s Garden, a sustainably focused farm, for team-building events. Employees work together to prepare a multi-course meal, cooking with only the healthiest locally grown ingredients. All the while, a world-class chef is pressing them to deal with various challenges. Afterwards, as the team enjoys the meal, they not only reflect on the hurdles they have overcome \u2013 they learn how the Jones family reinvented its business over the last 30 years. The Chef\u2019s Garden now provides specialty products with optimum shelf life, quality, flavor and nutrition from their farm to the world\u2019s finest chefs and restaurants. The Chef\u2019s Market also offers vegetables, herbs, microgreens, edible flowers, and more to home cooks nationwide via its brick-and-\u00admortar farm and online market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When 30 acres of farmland became available in 2018, FST saw an opportunity to build on its partnership with The Chef\u2019s Garden. They teamed up to farm the land regeneratively as a way improve the soil as well as the nutrients and flavor of the vegetables growing in it. The project was designed to support FST\u2019s goal of achieving zero carbon emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Corteco team is working for a sustainable future: In the front row, sitting (from left): Doug Barnes, Andrew Ciszczon, and Brittney \u00adLewis; Back row, standing (from left) \u00adRastislav \u00adJanis, \u00adRhydian Ilg, Lucia Griggs and Nichole Tigges.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Harvesting a Sustainable Future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

About half of the 30-acre parcel was planted with a cover crop that includes a variety of plants. They use sunlight, water and CO2 in the atmosphere to generate oxygen and sugar during photosynthesis. \u201cThis process helps to improve the nutrition and yield of crops, and also provides a direct benefit to the health of plants, animals and people in our local community,\u201d said Kimberly Hilling, HR Manager, \u00adCorteco North America. \u201cWhat\u2019s even better is that these 15 acres are further supported by the employee-managed bee boxes that are used to help pollinate cover crops, while the other 15 acres are being traditionally farmed and include an employee-maintained garden.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, The Chef\u2019s Garden partnered with a third party to measure the \u00adorganic soil at the Corteco site and presented the results to employees along with a general education about regenerative farming. Throughout the presentation, Bob Jones from The Chef\u2019s Garden reminded employees of the vital importance healthy soil plays in producing a healthy relationship among all living things.
\u201cHealthy soil produces healthy plants. Healthy plants produce healthy animals, healthy animals produce healthy humans and healthy humans produce a healthy world,\u201d Jones said during a presentation to Corteco employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking Ahead<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Corteco employees in Milan expect to see results from the regenerative farming techniques in the coming months. An analysis of how much CO2 the cover crop is removing from the atmosphere will also be calculated during 2024. Long a leader on sustainability issues, \u00adMilan can now lead the independent aftermarket \u201cin new ways that provide lasting health benefits,\u201d Hilling said.<\/p>\n

\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/i>\r\n <\/a>\r\n 1 <\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) is committed to reducing its CO2 emissions to zero by 2045 or sooner\u00a0\u2013 a\u00a0goal that has required the company to \u00adanalyze its processes and machinery, among…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[603,274],"tags":[587],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"class_list":["post-8745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-milan-usa-en","category-sustainability","tag-edition-01_2024-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8745"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8967,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8745\/revisions\/8967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8745"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=8745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}