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Cheryl Baldwin

VP of Consulting

Cheryl Baldwin, Ph.D. is a Vice President of Consulting for Pure Strategies, where she partners with corporate clients to develop and execute strategies to improve sustainability performance across food, home and personal care, and cosmetics industries. Cheryl also leads the firms’ global market research to generate new insights to accelerate business transformation.

Cheryl’s recent projects include helping build and implement a proactive approach to antibiotic use and animal welfare in the food supply chain for a major food retailer, assisting with the development of a “net positive” sustainability strategy for a food brand, and facilitating the development of a strategic chemicals management program for a home and personal care company.

Cheryl authored Pure Strategies’ market research report, The Path to Product Sustainability, and the book, The 10 Principles of Food Industry Sustainability (March 2015). She is the lead author/editor for two additional books on sustainability, Sustainability in the Food Industry and Greening Food and Beverage Services, and holds U.S. and international patents.

Prior to Pure Strategies, Cheryl led the life cycle research and sustainability standard program for the non-profit ecolabel organization Green Seal. Cheryl also worked in Research and Development for Kraft Foods, Inc. where she was involved in all phases of R&D from novel ingredient development to global product commercialization. Cheryl holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from Cornell University and a B.S. from the University of Illinois, all in Food Science.

Cheryl Baldwin is tagged in 16 stories.
Emerging Food Trend a Win for Sustainability
Emerging Food Trend a Win for Sustainability

Circular Economy / Ingredients such as sorghum, fonio and moringa are appearing on restaurant menus and in grocery stores. Increasing the diversity of foods used won’t just deliver flavor and a unique sales angle, but also support more resilient and sustainable production. - 5 years ago

Evolving Plastic Packaging Strategies — Beyond the Straw
Evolving Plastic Packaging Strategies — Beyond the Straw

Materials & Packaging / With rising demand for plastic, little recycled content and poor recycling rates, companies need to look carefully at their packaging strategies to ensure improvement of packaging design, recycling systems and consumer engagement in recycling. - 5 years ago

Benchmarking to Advance Safer Chemicals Management
Benchmarking to Advance Safer Chemicals Management

Materials & Packaging / From competitor and public policies to non-profit and investor pressures, there is more demand than ever to advance safer chemicals programs at your company. One proven way to help get on the right course is through benchmarking. Benchmarking does not need to be a daunting task. In fact, there are tools available to help companies evaluate and compare their safer chemicals performance to standardized criteria. This process can help foster safer chemicals management by driving program changes based on industry best practices and successful management techniques. - 5 years ago

Tips from Dr. Bronner’s, Sun World, Wrangler on Advancing Regenerative Ag Supply Chains
Tips from Dr. Bronner’s, Sun World, Wrangler on Advancing Regenerative Ag Supply Chains

Supply Chain / The winds are changing. Companies that have operated many steps removed from the farms and people that produce their raw materials are building stronger connections to their agricultural supply chains. This shift stems from interest to replenish soil and water supplies, and boost overall resilience and output through regenerative and thriving agriculture. Pure Strategies’ latest report, Connecting to the Farm, points to the best practices companies are using to get closer to the farm while advancing these critical sustainability aims and gaining valuable business benefits. - 6 years ago

3 Key Things to Understand About Soil Health
3 Key Things to Understand About Soil Health

Supply Chain / Half of the soil on our U.S. farmland is gone. Conventional agricultural practices and conversion of land to cropland caused this devastating loss. The good news is that the rate of soil erosion has declined, with an even brighter path ahead. - 6 years ago

#BusinessCase: How Companies Are Redefining the Source of Business Value
#BusinessCase: How Companies Are Redefining the Source of Business Value

Innovation & Technology / According to a new Pure Strategies study, several billion was earned in 2015 from the sustainability efforts of 153 survey respondents, signaling a new way of defining sources of business value. Taking inspiration from sustainability’s positive performance, companies should position their programs to generate the greatest business benefits and to measure and celebrate the gains. - 7 years ago

How Nestlé and Unilever Are Gaining Value by Leading in Sustainable Agriculture
How Nestlé and Unilever Are Gaining Value by Leading in Sustainable Agriculture

Innovation & Technology / Nestlé and Unilever are helping set the standard for sustainable agriculture, according to a survey of over 150 global sustainability heads conducted by Pure Strategies. The responses identified these firms as the leaders and revealed that farm-level engagement is a top priority across industries such as apparel, home and personal care, and life sciences. - 7 years ago

Report: Food Companies Gaining Ground on Product Sustainability
Report: Food Companies Gaining Ground on Product Sustainability

Innovation & Technology / Food production dominates fresh water use and is a primary driving force for soil and biodiversity loss – and food demand is on the rise. The good news is that while faced with such challenges and often considered to be lagging on sustainability, the food and beverage industry stands out as most-improved in a 2015 survey. - 8 years ago

What Is the Payoff from Product Sustainability Investments?
What Is the Payoff from Product Sustainability Investments?

New Metrics / Those of us in the field may share a deep-seated belief that sustainability efforts across the product value chain pay clear dividends — but it’s nice to have proof. - 9 years ago

How Sierra Nevada Is Brewing a Better Business
How Sierra Nevada Is Brewing a Better Business

Innovation & Technology / Few things are more disruptive to a processing facility than losing power – especially if several weeks’ worth of work is lost each time it happens. Facing this risk helped drive Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. to embed sustainability into the way it does business. - 9 years ago

Key Steps for Successfully Engaging Consumers to Eat Sustainably
Key Steps for Successfully Engaging Consumers to Eat Sustainably

Marketing & Communications / Everyday conversations about food are shifting from questions about whether to eat gluten or saturated fat to a new era in consumer food choices: sustainable diets. Some of this focus stems from recent findings reported by the federal government linking dietary choices to environmental impact and is bolstered by consumers’ awareness that their choices affect both their health and the environment. Consumers have long been seeking healthy food options and now the majority of consumers state that they intend to make changes in their diet for environmental reasons. - 9 years ago

Hitting the Bull’s-Eye With Your Product Sustainability Program
Hitting the Bull’s-Eye With Your Product Sustainability Program

Innovation & Technology / It can be daunting to ramp up a sustainability program. This is especially the case when moving from an operations focus, where most programs start, to successfully leveraging the many opportunities associated with product materials and sourcing, design, and production. Yet companies that take aim at their products and measure, improve, and communicate the environmental and social attributes across the life cycle are able to achieve significant improvements that dwarf those they could realize otherwise. - 9 years ago

Food Industry Playing Catch Up on Sustainability
Food Industry Playing Catch Up on Sustainability

Products and Design / Food and beverage companies are beginning to realize the importance of sustainability, with a growing number of companies working to advance environmental and social improvement in product ingredients, manufacturing, and packaging through to end-of-life. - 10 years ago

Retailers Including Walmart, Target Influencing Investment in Product Sustainability
Retailers Including Walmart, Target Influencing Investment in Product Sustainability

Products and Design / Walmart is the top retailer driving companies to invest in product sustainability, followed by Target, Costco and Nordstrom, according to research released by Pure Strategies in the report, The Path to Product Sustainability. The research, completed in February 2014 with 100 global consumer product companies such as The Coca Cola Company, Henkel and Timberland, finds that retailers, along with corporate strategy and CEO vision, are the primary reasons firms are incorporating product efforts in their sustainability programs. - 10 years ago

Sustainable Seafood: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Green Fish
Sustainable Seafood: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Green Fish

Supply Chain / One fish, two fishRed fish, green fishSick fish, well fishFrankenfish, farm-raised fishSome fish you should not eatOthers that are a treatFrom fish caught with a dolphinTo fish caught far too oftenA glut of boats in the seaSome fish caught responsiblyKnowing which are idealHelps you enjoy your meal - 10 years ago

Beyond Omega-3s: How Systems Thinking Helped Organic Valley Yield a Host of Sustainability Benefits
Beyond Omega-3s: How Systems Thinking Helped Organic Valley Yield a Host of Sustainability Benefits

Products and Design / Organic milk comes with a dose of healthful omega-3 fatty acids, which help prevent heart disease and are linked to additional health benefits. Normally associated with seafood or dietary supplements, these valuable nutrients can also come from some dairy products, according to research published last month in PLOS ONE. The study included milk from Organic Valley, the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperative, which has been on the path to understanding the fatty acid profile of its products since 2009. - 10 years ago