At the GMA Manufacturing Excellence Conference, which is co-located with Pack Expo and takes place on Nov. 1-2 at McCormick Center in Chicago, a retailer-manufacturer panel has been put together to share some of their “market-to-manufacturing” success stories pertaining to nearly half of all shoppers who gravitate to green when shopping.

Food manufacturers are constantly striving to get ahead of the “green” curve by anticipating market signals and consumer shopping patterns and their potential effect on “green” manufacturing. At the GMA Manufacturing Excellence Conference, which is co-located with Pack Expo and takes place on Nov. 1-2 at McCormick Center in Chicago, a retailer-manufacturer panel has been put together to share some of their “market-to-manufacturing” success stories pertaining to nearly half of all shoppers who gravitate to green when shopping.

Panelists include:

Jeanne von Zastrow, senior director, sustainability and industry relations, Food Marketing Institute. Zastrow serves as the lead executive on Sustainability for the Food Marketing Institute. In January 2006, she initiated FMI’s Food Industry Sustainability Initiative with the mission to identify key sustainability issues, prioritize the issues and develop the tools and resources needed for the industry to understand, respond and implement sustainability within their companies.

Ellen Feeney, vice president, responsible livelihood, White Wave Foods, oversees the company’s corporate sustainability initiatives, which are key tenets of WhiteWave’s mission and values. She is responsible for the creation and implementation of strategic environmental programs, community involvement efforts, non-profit alliances and Values in Action (VIA), WhiteWave’s signature engagement program to promote sustainability practices and volunteerism.

Michele Halsell, managing director, Applied Sustainability Center, University of Arkansas, also serves as the managing director for the ASC in the Sam M Walton School of Business. She became a peer counselor in the Office for Non-Traditional Students at the university in 1994. In 1996, she joined Student Support Services as a student development specialist; then in March 1999, she accepted the position as the managing director for the Graduate School of Business. Prior to joining the U of A, she worked in marketing as an assistant product manager at Tyson Foods.

Kim Lymn, senior manager, packaging, Target Corp., works to create a best-in-class retailer packaging development team. Lymn has been with Target for five years and has more than 25 years of packaging development experience. Prior to Target, Lymn was the director of packaging development at General Mills and the associate director of packaging at Kraft. She has focused on guest-centric packaging development and building strong partnerships with packaging suppliers throughout her career.

Wesley Bean, senior director, strategic sourcing, Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., is responsible for sourcing of store operations, corporate services such as IT, marketing and human resources, and logistic. He also is responsible for leading the company’s activities around sustainability. Previously, Bean served as the director of strategic sourcing for Walmart global procurement, and was responsible for leading several board of directors’ initiatives, including the creation of the Global Indirect Spend Center of Excellence, which leveraged the buying potential of Walmart across its international markets for indirect commodities. 

For more information about the sessions or to register to attend the tradeshow, go to http://www.packexpo.com/pei2010/public/Content.aspx?ID=1075.