The ConAgra Foods Lamb Weston Boardman, Oregon, potato plant has earned for the first time an ENERGY STAR certification from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA awards the ENERGY STAR—one of the most recognized green marks in the world—to plants achieving best-in-class performance, based on the EPA’s Energy Performance Indicator (EPI).

Additionally, the Lamb Weston plants in Park Rapids, Minnesota, and Richland and Quincy, Washington, received ENERGY STAR re-certification for 2011.

“We’re proud of our ENERGY STAR certified plants,” says Rick Martin, vice president of global operations, ConAgra Foods Lamb Weston. “Sustainable business is better business, and we practice it throughout our supply chain, beginning at the farm and ending with quality products delivered to our foodservice and retail customers around the world. Controlling energy usage and limiting our carbon footprint at each step along the way is critical to our business and to the environment.”

In 2008, ConAgra Foods and other food companies worked alongside the EPA to develop the EPI tool now used to determine ENERGY STAR certification in the food industry. The EPA selected potato processing as one of the first types of food plants to benchmark because of the amount of energy and water they typically use.

At Lamb Weston, environmental stewardship is evident through every step of growing, processing, packaging, and transporting products. The company seizes every opportunity to preserve and protect vital natural resources by managing energy and water usage, and by reducing waste and pollution. Lamb Weston’s efforts reflect ConAgra Foods’ commitment to doing the right thing for its communities and the environment through an integrated corporate responsibility platform, “Good for You. Good for the Community. Good for the Planet.”