No, you didn’t click on the business category and accidentally land in MNN Food Blogger Robin Shreeves’ section.  One pasta company in Georgia has created its own green stimulus package.  Via Elisa offered its Atlanta area customers a buy one, get one half off special last week.  The company also announced its partnership with a local CSA to combine deliveries, which will help both companies curb their greenhouse gas emissions.

 

The Via Elisa pasta is made using organic flours, locally sourced eggs from cage-free hens, and cheese and tomatoes imported from Italy.  The pasta is served in some of the finest restaurants in Atlanta but is also available out of the back of a traveling delivery truck.

 

This mobile gourmet pasta truck will also be used to deliver Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) produce boxes to customers of Serenbe Farms.  The combination deliveries begin in mid-April.  Combining deliveries reduces greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating an extra delivery truck.  Gourmet pasta and locally grown organic produce in one delivery, maybe my husband should take that job offer in Atlanta!

 

Via Elisa’s growing green business is just one unique example of how companies can join forces.  Yogurt company Stonyfield Farm also teamed up with another business to reduce its impact on the environment and save money.

 

In the book Stirring It Up, How to Make Money and Save the Worldby Gary Hirshberg (Stonyfield Farm’s CE-Yo), Hirshberg described one agreement that saved the company money while reducing the company’s contribution to CO2 emissions. 

 

One of the company’s delivery routes is from Stonyfield Farm’s New Hampshire headquarters to New York City.  A truck driver traveled that route regularly with an empty truck while returning from a poultry delivery in New England.

“We contracted to provide his return loads, got a great low rate, and concluded that since he would be driving the return route anyway, the delivery increased pollution only by the small amount of extra fuel needed to haul the load.”  Source: Stirring It Up (pg. 59)

Via Elisa and Stonyfield Farm have shown the benefits of combining deliveries; these two for one partnerships affect each company’s financial bottom line but also help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

 

For more information about Via Elisa, read Elisa Gambino’s journey from CNN producer to pasta aficionado.