A Grand Rapids-Based Company, The Gluten Free Bar Shares Recipe for Circular Economy Success

Brothers Marshall and Elliot Rader, founders of The Gluten Free Bar (GFB) in Grand Rapids, have built a thriving business while pursuing a triple bottom line approach: prioritizing people, planet, and prosperity. With a commitment to environmental sustainability, GFB operates as a Zero Waste Food Production Facility, giving back to the community and ensuring employees earn more than a living wage.

“While we wanted to change the way healthful foods taste, we also wanted to improve the lives of everyone who comes in contact with us,” the Raders say.

Since its founding in 2010, GFB products are now sold in more than 12,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada, and the company has achieved an average 90% waste diversion rate, positioning it for GCBI TRUE Zero Waste certification.

Zero Waste Operations in Action

With its employees on board, GFB move sustainability initiatives forward that included reusing 4,000 pounds of pallets from inbound from suppliers every month; giving a pig farmer the 1,000 pounds of additional monthly food scrap that their composter was unable to process at the time; and donating all 200 to 300 plastic barrels acquired every month to an aquatic habitat rehabilitation organization. Recycling Concepts takes all of GFB’s plastics and plastic-coated parchment paper, which lines product cooling racks. 

GFB demonstrates that achieving environmental sustainability goals is more about ingenuity and human connections than compliance. Internally, ongoing training ensures production leads buy into the measures and minimize scrap to begin with. Employee updates on progress and signage on the plant floor keep everyone on the same recyclable page.

As the Raders say, “From the beginning, we wanted to create a company that ‘did the right thing.’ As The GFB has grown and we’ve learned more about what ‘doing the right thing’ really means, we’ve evolved into a Triple Bottom Line company—meaning that, as a business, our goals are people, planet, and prosperity.”