Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility at The Wonderful Company

As an agricultural company, we are deeply committed to protecting and conserving our natural resources. In partnership with industry leaders and universities, Wonderful directs significant resources toward cutting-edge research and groundbreaking technology to improve our product quality and operational efficiency while also minimizing our impact on the environment. To date, we have invested more than $200 million in protecting our natural resources.

CLEAN ENERGY USE
Harnessing the power of the sun
We have four large solar installations at our three primary plants, with our Wonderful Halos plant boasting one of the largest privately owned single-site solar rooftop installations in America. We have also installed fuel cells at our six primary locations. Our Wonderful Citrus and Halos locations generate 30% of their required electricity without combustion or pollution.

EFFICIENT WATER USE
Reducing our impact
As stewards of the environment, we are always looking at ways to reduce our water impact. That's why, to date, we have invested over $25 million in advanced irrigation research and technologies—from incorporating new ways to measure and monitor soil moisture to mapping crops with drones.



Our commitment to innovation doesn't end with irrigation. After 25 years of breeding and selection, we've created Pistachio Super Trees, which use the same amount of water to produce a 30% higher yield.

WONDERFUL BEES
Buzzing with enthusiasm
Bees are a subject of global concern, due not only to the decline of bee populations, but also the aging, retiring beekeeper population. Wonderful Bees is now one of America’s largest bee companies, and we are actively hiring and training young apprentices and bee biologists to help us secure the future for this critical element of agriculture.

INNOVATING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Investing in the future
The Resnick Sustainability Institute at Caltech was made possible through Stewart and Lynda Resnick’s $30 million gift. The Institute provides a path to sustainability by focusing on the innovative science and engineering research required to develop groundbreaking technologies and solutions to global energy and climate change.

Community Impact and Philanthropy

The Wonderful Company helped finance and build the first sit-down restaurant in Lost Hills, Gabby’s, which officially opened its doors in September 2015. We have also helped Lost Hills reduce its crime rate, returned an annualized county tax benefit of $150,000–$500,000 to the community, established a community advisory group to help Lost Hills on its path to self-governance, and secured the town’s first polling place.

 

Outside of Lost Hills, we also established the Wonderful Community Grants program in Avenal, Wasco, Sanger/Del Rey and Delano/McFarland, offering a total of $600,000 to help support a variety of improvement efforts in these communities.