The Gluten Free Bar Shares Recipe for Circular Economy Success

Brothers Marshall and Elliot Rader share celiac disease, the company they founded in 2010, and a commitment to environmental sustainability. That Grand Rapids-based company, The Gluten Free Bar (GFB), pursues the triple bottom line by manufacturing a successful product, paying employees more than living wage, giving back to community, and operating as a Zero Waste Food Production Facility. The Gluten Free Bar is now sold in more than 12,000 stores across the US and Canada.

A Certified B Corporation, GFB has made massive strides reducing its overall waste. To be considered Zero Waste, an overall 90% diversion rate is required, i.e. 90% of all waste must be recycled, composted, upcycled, or reused. By the end of 2018, GFB was averaging that 90% diversion rate. GFB has also put a framework in place to become a GCBI TRUE certified zero waste facility. In 2019, WMSBF named GFB as its Sustainable Business of the Year.

“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.”

With its employees on board, GFB came up with a big batch of ingenious strategies that include 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 Organicycle can’t handle; 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. And, Republic Services picks up all single stream recyclable materials, including up to 5,000 pounds of cardboard a month.

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 brothers 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.”