McCain Foods hopes to make one of America’s favorite guilty pleasures a little more virtuous with a new companywide push for sustainable production practices.
As Lucas Dufalla reports for the Sun Journal, the Canadian-based company has pledged to convert to fully renewable energy at its plants by 2030, starting with the creation of five community ‘solar gardens’ to power 50 percent of its plant in Maine’s Aroostook County town of Easton on the Canadian border.
Plans for the community ‘solar gardens’ – a term describing smaller plots of solar panels – were announced on June 5, the start of McCain’s self-proclaimed “sustainability week.” The gardens will be spread across Easton, with one being built on a capped landfill.
“Climate change is an existential threat. We’re committed to playing our role in solving the problem, and the solar gardens are just the natural next step in our sustainability goals,” said Curtis Swager, McCain’s senior director of government and external affairs.
In addition, McCain plans to work with its growers nationwide to implement more sustainable agriculture practices to satisfy environmentally conscious consumers and help combat the effects of climate change.
