Miller Magazine Issue: 152 August 2022

83 ARTICLE MILLER / AUGUST 2022 tation for business partners. Gulati cites Bühler in his book on deep purpose as an example of a company that has suc- cessfully adopted this approach. Once a social purpose is decided on, it must be properly explained to all stakeholders both internally as well as externally, so that it becomes part of the corporate DNA and can be expressed in all of a com- pany’s actions. Another example of a company that has embraced Gulati’s philosophy is Dole Sunshine Company which defines its pur- pose as creating “a more equitable world where everyone irrespective of their age, race, income, location or gender has the right to nutrition that comes from the goodness of the earth.” Speaking at the event, President of Dole Sun- shine Company, Pier Luigi Sigismondi, outlined some of the actions the agricultural multinational corporation, formed in 1851, has recently taken. “We at Dole came out of 30 years of being a victim of being focused on short-termism and think- ing the only responsibility we had was to deliver profit,” said Sigismondi. Describing how the company had transformed during the global pandemic he added: “In the Covid-19 crisis we asked ourselves: ‘What can we do to drive our business with success and with purpose in a way that we can live with our conscience and be meaningful for all of us?’” Over the past two years, Dole has partnered with NGOs, business- es, and start-ups to drive change by improving nutrition and sustainability levels. Initiatives include a target to remove fos- sil-based plastics frompackaging by 2025, turning fruit waste into fibers to create fashion products, improving accessibility to nutritious fruit-based snacks for children, and raising pub- lic health awareness by projecting malnutrition facts onto the sides of building and trash cans in New York, Los Angeles, and Baltimore. Dole Sunshine Company is about to replicate the awareness-raising campaign in London. STRENGTHENING LOCAL SUPPLY CHAINS Swiss entrepreneur and owner of CN & Partners AG, Christoph Nyfeler, told the conference about opening the first commercial malting house based in Switzerland for 90 years. Despite a challenging market he plans to leverage the circular economy to help him develop local supply chains by producing plant-based meat with the waste material from the brewing process and launch Circular Food Solutions Swit- zerland. He has teamed up with a Bühler spin-off to produce plant-based meat from spent grain. “All malt is transported into Switzerland as it has almost no value, and yet I believe local production to be part of today’s solutions,” explained Nyfeler. “Local production is more expensive, but if I can buy the spent grain back, I can give an economic benefit to the breweries.”