Recipe for Resilience

The ongoing pandemic disrupted countless supply chains in 2021, including some that serve our Idaho and Indiana bakeries. Clif’s VP of Operations, Dale Ducommun, said so many challenges popped up that “sometimes it felt like we were playing whack-a-mole.” Thankfully, Clif’s superpower is our people. Every Clif team, from planning to warehouse, redoubled their efforts to manage supply chain anomalies and anything else that COVID threw our way.

Each time our usual supplier was unable to deliver an important ingredient—chocolate chips, for example—our sourcing team stepped up to find it elsewhere. Clif’s long-term partnerships with our suppliers were a big plus, Dale confirmed, “although transportation planning around the ports and railroads was also unpredictable.”

Amidst all the juggling, we discovered some surprising wins. One technical adjustment cut our carbon footprint by reducing the material required to cool our doughs by 22% across both bakeries. Clif’s Indianapolis bakery will become a TRUE Zero Waste certified facility in May 2022. Last year, our Twin Falls, ID bakery achieved TRUE Zero Waste certification at the Platinum level, as well as LEED Zero Waste by the U.S. Green Building Council. Looking back on 2021, we can see how running a five-bottom-line business delivered multiple new benefits.