Method to the Madness or Madness to Method? Part II

“One of the things we wanted to do in terms of transparency is offer tours, so we designed this mezzanine so the entire facility is viewable from here. It’s very open. There’s nothing secret here. For $2,000 you could break down our formula–and everyone else’s in the industry, for that matter.”—Method Global Vice President, Supply Chain, Garry Embleton.

“We are a mission-driven company,” said Method’s Global Vice President, Supply Chain, Garry Embleton. Method was founded as a B Corporation. B Corps are certified by nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency (see Lead image).

“Part of that commitment is to look at environmental and social issues and to integrate them into every decision you make. So you move away from the traditional approach that everything is driven by the P&L statement,” Embleton said.

Connecting with Community

As a B Corp, Method’s priorities are not only on environmental issues but also social issues. “We’ve always thought about community as part of sustainability, but too often, the community aspect was overlooked. So even though we were doing great from an environmental perspective, our connection to the community in our headquarters in San Francisco was relatively limited,” Embleton said.

In addition to facilitating the production of healthy food on-site, the manufacturer is impacting the community in a most significant way: providing good local jobs.

“As you look at manufacturing and the types of jobs you create, you realize you have a real opportunity to make a difference,” Embleton said. “For us, it’s really about rounding out that sustainability story in the most impactful way possible.”

The company began with a staff of 40 and just added a second shift, bringing that total to 60 (see Figure 1). It expects to add a third shift by the end of the year. The jobs Method offers are full-time, paying what Embleton called a living wage, with medical, dental, and vision benefits and a performance-related incentive bonus.

The company’s on-site packaging supplier, Amcor, hired 25 full-time employees with comparable wages and benefits. It is expected that Gotham Greens, its rooftop tenant, will hire 20 to 40 workers, bringing the total well over 100.

“Local hiring is a big commitment for us,” Embleton said. The city of Chicago provided a training grant that helped the company with initial training. “Our goals were very much aligned in terms of developing this area, which is still pretty distressed.”

Figure 1: Supporting the local community with full-time, living-wage jobs with benefits was a critical corporate goal.

Method absorbed B Corp’s mottos—“Redefining success in business,” and “Using business as a force for good,” —and formulated their own that pushes even further: “One of our aims as a business is to change business.”

Greenhouse. The business arrangement for the rooftop greenhouse is that Method leases the space to Gotham Greens for a nominal fee and benefits from the green roof’s insulating properties and stormwater runoff reduction. It also advances its goal to contribute to the community. In addition to providing an oasis in the desert, of sorts, the company plans to donate a percentage of the produce to local food pantries.

Automation. In addition to investing in the local community, the company has invested in automation (see Figure 2). It is its largest investment, according to Embleton. “We invest in technology where it gives us a competitive advantage. Where it doesn’t, we do the same thing as everyone else.”

Figure 2: The high-speed fill and pump-insertion line is automated. The newly manufactured empty bottles are fed into the feeder and oriented. The bottles then are filled; the pumps are inserted, tied, and torqued. The filled and completed bottles then go to a manual packing operation, which will soon be automated, too.

Transportation. The company’s transportation strategies usher in more than environmental benefits. “There are big business benefits to efficiently moving materials in and finished goods out, whether that’s by road, rail, or by cart within our plant.”

The on-site supply chain brings flexibility and other benefits, Embleton said. “It’s a real partnership. Talk about skin in the game … everyone wants to produce, use the right bottles, and feed the line efficiently.”

The business arrangement with the bottle manufacturer and the decorative labeler is that they are housed in the Method building but operated independently. The leasing agreements are designed for efficiency rather than as a revenue source for Method.

“We’re never going to get in the bottle business,. By giving Amcor the space, we create an advantage for both of us. It’s beneficial for us because we don’t have the freight; it’s beneficial for them because of the low rent. It has to work for everyone. When it’s done well, it’s incredibly efficient,” Embleton said.

Renewable Energy. The renewable-energy commitment is long-term, Embleton said. It may not pay out in a typical two- or three-year ROI, but over a 10-plus-year period, it pays out exceptionally well, especially considering energy volatility, he maintains.

Although the P&L doesn’t drive all decisions, that does not mean that a B Corp loses sight of the P&L, he said.

“It is about building a sustainable business; in the end, we are a business. We have a P&L, we have profit targets, growth targets … it’s really important not to lose sight of that. Method is one of the best-run companies, from a financial perspective, I’ve ever been in. We understand what drives our P&L,” Embleton said.

The savings realized from energy efficiencies and a tight operation allow Method the resources to support its commitments to other endeavors that are not revenue-generating but that solidify the company’s values and mission, Embleton added.

“Within the P&L, the decisions you make are driven by your values, and that’s where we’ve been able to incorporate some of these more unusual goals.

“And that’s always the balance.”

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Hear about Method’s sustainability initiatives and Rockwind’s wind turbine manufurbishing directly from the source in person at the Sustainable Manufacturer Conference & Exhibits on May 18 in Naperville (Chicago) Ill.

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Wind Turbine Gets Second Wind

Method’s wind turbine utility-scale, 221-foot-tall, 600 kW is an 11-year-old refurbished turbine. Method earned LEED points for installing a reused turbine.

Only a few years ago, a 1-megawatt (MW) wind turbine was the largest made. Today, wind turbine manufacturers are building up to 10-MW machines. As utility-scale wind turbines power up, wind farm operations are replacing their first-generation machines with higher-powered ones, even though the original turbines have decades of life remaining.

This situation has created a new after-market for those decommissioned turbines—and an opportunity for astute manufacturers to purchase them for their own use. Up until now, many manufacturers have had a hard time finding an OEM to sell just one. Where the giant OEMs don’t want to sell onesies, refurbishing companies are happy to do so.

Manufurbishers like Rockwind, Rockford, Ill., are snatching up the decommissioned turbines, rebuilding them, and selling them to manufacturers like Method.

“I began to see the rise of wind turbines installed in northern Illinois and Iowa, and it seemed to me that there could be a good future in maintaining those turbines,” said Richard Johnson, president and CEO of Rockwind. “I recognized that these turbines are going to need to be repaired and rebuilt, as all machinery is.”

In partnership with Method, Rockwind bought an 11-year-old Micon wind turbine from a wind farm in Holland that was replacing theirs with larger, more powerful ones. Method earned Leadership in Energy and Environment (LEED) certification points for acquiring a reused turbine.

Rockwind disassembles every component of the turbines, rebuilds them in the U.S. with technologically advanced replacement components that were not available during the original manufacturing process, and has them certified. “Wind turbine gears and drivetrains are very, very high quality. They are basically aerospace quality. So that’s not the kind of thing you can do at the average gear shop, but in Rockford and this region, there are all kinds of aerospace-capable gear suppliers that supply gears for aircraft and helicopters,” Johnson said.

“The one at Method is running with a new control system, with advanced surface treatments on the gears in the gearbox, with active machine controls, condition monitoring systems, and new machinery,” Johnson said. “It can be operated from a smartphone app.”

The turbine is roughly 221-ft. high with its 72-ft.-long blades outstretched at 12 o’clock. It generates 600 kW, or about a million kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, the equivalent of powering 90 homes. “The whole thing weighs 150,000 pounds, so it’s a pretty heavy structure,” Johnson said. “One of the good things about reuse is that you don’t have to remelt 150,000 lbs. of steel. It’s better to turn it back into a wind turbine. So we’re reusing, recycling all of that.

“The fact is that we have refurbished and renovated these 10-year-old turbines to effectively reset their lifecycle clocks.”

Mad scientist concocting secret formulas? No, just Method biologist Bart Radzik, who is testing the cleaners’ chemical concentrations and properties, such as viscosity, to verify that the products are effective and nontoxic. Method publicly discloses its formulas.