Organic food and drink company Clif Bar & Co., which is headquartered in Emeryville, Calif., has celebrated the opening of its $90 million Twin Falls, Idaho, bakery – which will be powered entirely by wind energy.
Through the purchase of renewable energy credits from an Idaho wind farm, 100% of the electricity require to power the new, 300-square-foot bakery will be generated from wind.
The company says the sustainability-focused facility intentionally uses a “biophilic design,” which includes more than 200 windows, vaulted skylights, light-directing solatubes, indoor walls of recycled barnwood and natural stone, indoor plants, and sliding doors that connect an auditorium to an outdoor events space. Outside, Clif Bar built patios for outdoor breaks and planted drought-tolerant, native plants, including more than 570 trees and 5,700 shrubs and grasses. Slated for the near future are a biking/footpath and organic community garden.
In addition, Clif Bar is pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification for the building, which includes hybrid cooling towers that contribute to the bakery’s using about a third less water than most conventional bakeries. On-demand conveyors, LED lighting, a reflective roof, and a water-source heat pump help the bakery use about 20% less energy than most conventional bakeries, according to Clif Bar.
“It was really important to us that our Twin Falls bakery embodied our company values,” says Clif Bar’s CEO, Kevin Cleary, who joined Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, bakery staff and other officials at a ribbon cutting at the bakery yesterday. “We wanted it to be a healthy, welcoming place for people to work – a workplace that sustains our people, the community and the planet.”
