Lauren Beerman, MBA
Director, Corporate Sustainability, Gay Lea Foods Co-operative
Industrial decarbonization gets easier when every tonne of carbon comes with a business case. Lauren built Gay Lea Foods’ first Energy Management Program and a real-time monitoring system that has driven 70 energy and emissions projects. Together they’ve cut 9,400 tonnes of CO2e and generated more than $3.5 million in savings, most paid back within two years. On the road, her team swapped 17 diesel trailers for hybrid-electric units and optimized routes to cut over 37,000 kilometres of driving a year, part of a plan targeting net-zero transportation by 2050. Lauren built Gay Lea’s ESG governance from scratch, making carbon cuts as much a part of the co-operative’s bread and butter as the butter and cheese themselves.
