TALKIN' - University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

Going green with cheese
Interns help shipping industry think outside the box
When a customized containermanagement
company specializing
in two of Wisconsin’s
most famous products —
cheese and beer — wanted to
gauge the performance of one
of its best-selling containers, it
asked a neighbor.
Tosca, Ltd., partnered with
experts from UW-Green Bay’s
Environmental Management
and Business Institute (EMBI)
and a few good interns.
The result, says Greg Gorski,
Tosca VP of operations, was
“a very successful, mutually
beneficial project meeting the
needs of both the private sector
and academia.”
Tosca’s business is national in
scope, supplying returnable
containers for bulk shipment
of food products including
dairy, fresh produce, meat and
poultry. The Green Bay firm
has also handled beer keg distribution
and repair for more
than 50 years.
4 May 2011
With interest in sustainability
on the rise, Tosca set out to
perform a comprehensive lifecycle
analysis of its standard
wood “640” cheese box, compared
to a plastic alternative.
“The scope included not only
the manufacturing of the
wood and plastic components,”
Gorski explains, “but transportation,
repair, and wash
analysis.”
With an eye on cost effectiveness
through sustainable
practices, EMBI interns and
UW-Green Bay undergraduates
Steven Teclaw and Phillip
Davister set out to analyze the
energy and material requirements
of the 640 and improve
its environmental footprint.
They spent long hours in the
plant working with Tosca team
members to gather data.
Graduate student Adam Snippen
volunteered his time to
help refine the data inputs,
assumptions and analysis.
UW-Green Bay environmental
engineer and professor John
Katers oversaw their research.
As the project was being
finalized this
spring, Tosca’s
Gorski was
already labeling
it a success.
“Their analysis
was extremely
comprehensive
and the results
of their work
will be applied
directly to our
Sustainability
Goals and
‘Green Tier’ program.”
That means, in addition to
addressing basic performance
of the 640, the work has marketing
value because new and
existing customers increasingly
express interest in sustainable
practices.
“The UW-Green Bay
students were very
energetic and diligent
in meeting our needs
on this project.”
–Tosca’s Greg Gorski
Says Teclaw, a senior Environmental
Science and Policy
major from Rhinelander, “This
internship was one of the
most important opportunities
I’ve had at
UW-Green Bay,
especially as it
applies to realworldexperience.”
He said he
was especially
pleased to be
able to tackle
a project in
holistic fashion,
rather than
from a single
perspective, and that it helped
a local employer.
“Being an environmental science-oriented
student, taking
business classes is something I
would not have normally done.
EMBI makes sure students go
in with a multi-disciplinary
approach to their internships.”