Clover Sonoma dairy product producer receives a North Bay GIVES award

Name of CEO or Leader of the charitable efforts or your group: Marcus Benedetti

Their title: Chairman of the Board

Company headquarters address: 1800 S. McDowell Blvd, suite 100, Petaluma, CA 94954

(800) 237-3315

www.cloversonoma.com

As an organization, there is clearly a determination to encourage employees and the company to support nonprofits and their causes. In what ways is this culture embedded in your organization?

Born of founder Gene Benedetti’s desire to build “a company that truly reflected his personal ethos,” Clover Sonoma has always taken the long view.

Clover Sonoma consistently rises to, and surpasses, the standards of quality and sustainability in the dairy industry, challenging itself to maintain its values despite the pressures of a growing business and industry.

Clover Sonoma sources directly from regional family farms, fostering family farming and sharing quality and sustainability methods. In short, we strive to support the community that supports us, wherever and however possible.

How have you and/or your employees seen the benefits of this investment in the company? These can be specific examples or in general from feedback you have received.

These investments show our employees that we want to lead the change that needs to happen within the dairy industry, food system, and in our communities being the example of “Dairy with Integrity.”

Integrity and quality have been pillars of our foundation for generations, and we carry that throughout our Clover Cares giving efforts and how we support our employees. And as a B Corp, employees are proud to be part of a business that is used as a power for good.

More specifically, during the pandemic, Clover Sonoma donated more than $100,000 to our local Petaluma Valley Hospital to provide ventilators and critical medical supplies.

We encouraged our employees, other companies and donors to support their local hospitals. This resulted in more than $100,000 in additional donations from other companies and individual donors in the community.

As part of your company’s Clover Cares program, projects such as a school garden project, a junior cooking challenge, education grants, and agricultural education have received funding to the tune of more than $800,000 in 2020 alone. Explain more how this specific program works and why Clover embraces it.

Clover Cares is an extension of our business and we give at least 5% of profits each year to nonprofits that support our three pillars: elevating dairy, empowering future generations, and supporting the community.

For example, as part of our elevating dairy pillar, Clover Sonoma led a local effort by donating $25,000 to the nonprofit Zero Foodprint’s efforts to fund regenerative farming projects in California.

Zero Foodprint helps farmers and ranchers implement regenerative farming projects that pull carbon from the atmosphere and transform it into healthy soil.

Zero Foodprint recently selected Clover Sonoma’s Perucchi dairy farm as a recipient of a Restore California grant that will pay for range planting and 350 tons of compost application across 25 acres.

Implementing regenerative farming at Perucchi dairy farm will jump start soil biology, which is expected to transform 810 tons of atmospheric carbon into healthy soil carbon over the coming years. That amount of atmospheric carbon is equivalent to more than two million miles driven by an average passenger vehicle.

One of the impacts of community benefits from Clover’s outreach is in the environment, which includes who your milk suppliers are and your product packaging. Explain please how Clover serves the environment in these two specific ways.

During a year of unprecedented challenges, the company also made a conscious commitment to support renewable packaging innovation, and our farmers. These commitments not only positively impact the planet, but also ensure the health of our communities.

Clover Sonoma is at the forefront of innovative, sustainable packaging solutions for the food and beverage industry having announced the first fully renewable milk carton in the United States in 2020.

Being the first to come out with a thirty percent PCR content gallon milk jug is the next step in sustainable packaging innovation. The first PCR milk jugs will be on shelf in the first quarter of 2022 with a designated logo to educate consumers about the new packaging’s benefits.

● With a 100% plant based liner, we created the First Renewable Milk Carton in the U.S. – this carton has a 16% smaller carbon footprint vs. traditional cartons. We are planning to convert all of our retail cartons to the renewable carton by 2025.

● Starting with thirty percent PCR content on its organic gallon milk line, we commit to increasing the PCR content and extending PCR content use across all Clover Sonoma gallon milk jugs by 2025.

Using PCR content in plastic packaging creates a closed loop system for recycling plastic gallon milk jugs and ensures that plastic is neither created nor destroyed, but re-used for a single purpose.

Our 30 family farms continue to produce some of the highest quality milk on the market. The care they take of their animals is one of the highest bars they set for themselves (beyond any USDA organic certification) and is central to their operation.

For more than 20 years, thei American Humane certification provides third party accountability that substantiates the humane treatment of their animals. That criteria is built around smaller herd sizes and the five freedoms of animal welfare, as well as assures that Clover Sonoma farms respect the animals that produce their product and feed our communities.