TORONTO – Lactalis Canada, the Canadian dairy leader behind iconic brands like Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond, Balderson, Astro and Lactantia and a subsidiary of France-based Lactalis Group, is excited to unveil Lactalis Canada NEXT Ventures – an innovation program designed to spur and accelerate future thinking, innovation and creativity by empowering employees and leveraging internal crowdsourcing to explore ideas and bring to market new products, processes, technologies or business models. Launching today on Earth Day, the 2022/23 program will focus on Waste Reduction.
Following an open innovation model, contributors with the most inventive and potentially viable proposals will have the unique opportunity to participate in a comprehensive program to further explore and develop these new ideas from inception to implementation through the facilitation of mentorships, collaboration, resource support and external partnerships. The program goal is to positively impact the future of Lactalis Canada’s organization, people, customers and communities while promoting continued intrapreneurship at Lactalis Canada.
“The best and most disruptive ideas can often come from within an organization and Lactalis Canada NEXT Ventures further opens our innovation funnel to tap into the talent, creativity and expertise of our own people with the potential to work with external partners to discover the next big idea for our business,” said Mark Taylor, President and CEO, Lactalis Canada. “It’s truly exciting to recognize Earth Day with an open call for waste reduction ideas through our new Lactalis Canada NEXT Ventures.”
Lactalis Canada NEXT Ventures will be an annual program with a new theme unveiled yearly. The program will kick off in 2022 with a focus on finding solutions to reduce waste in any form including, but not limited to time, abilities, financial resources, food, processing, packaging, energy and material resources.
Today, Lactalis Canada’s commitment to waste reduction features some innovative solutions including a unique collaboration with Ontario-based Dairy Distillery where the by-product of ultrafiltered milk production called milk permeate (milk sugar) from our Winchester, Ontario plant is supplied to the distillery to turn into alcohol for its Vodkow and Vodkow Cream spirits. In addition, Lactalis Canada’s Wastewater Modernization Project at its Winchester, Ontario plant won the first-ever 2021 Canadian Grocer Impact Award in the Sustainability category. The multi-million, four-year project completed in 2020 has contributed to odour and noise mitigation, 35% reduced electricity consumption, fertilizer production and an enhanced wastewater treatment process at the plant.About Lactalis Canada Inc.
With 140 years of brand heritage, Lactalis Canada (formerly Parmalat Canada) is committed to enriching and nurturing the lives of Canadians by producing nutritious and great tasting dairy products. Named on Forbes 2022 list of Canada’s Best Employers, Lactalis Canada directly employs 4,000 Canadians, supports hundreds of farming families and contributes to the livelihoods of thousands of Canadians who provide essential services to Lactalis Canada’s more than 30 operating sites including 19 manufacturing facilities. The company’s iconic brands include Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond, P’tit Québec, Balderson, Cheestrings Ficello, aMOOza!, Astro, siggi’s, Stonyfield, IÖGO, IÖGO nanö, Olympic, Lactantia, Beatrice, Galbani, and Président. Lactalis Canada’s commitment to responsible and sustainable growth has been recognized with the 2021 Canadian Grocer Impact Award for Sustainability and its CDN $2.9 million investment to the communities in which it operates. Lactalis Canada is a subsidiary of Lactalis Group, the world’s leading dairy group, headquartered in Laval, France. For more information, visit www.lactalis.ca.
