Corporate Social Responsibility

We depend on supervisors like Lawrence Nyattheny, who oversees the farm's 4,000-calf nursery.

CSR on the Farm: Aligning Intent and Actions

We started farming with the belief that sound business practices and sound environmental practices go hand in hand.

Our mission

To establish Threemile Canyon Farms as the premier sustainable farm in the Northwest, bringing healthy, high quality food products to market using innovative, responsible and "green" business practices.

Our values

Our core values were developed in 2000 as part of our business mission and plan. They reflect a commitment to long-term customer relations based on value-added products:

• Build trusted customer relationships based on commitment to quality and long-term market outlook.
• Sell high quality, value-added products -not commodities.
• Create partnerships based on shared values and complimentary skills.
• Squeeze out waste, costs, and uncertainties through vertical integration.
• Be an equal opportunity employer, pay family wages and benefits, create a safe and healthy workplace.
• Treat people, the land, and animals with respect.
• Share what we learn.

CSR Framework Overview

Overview

In 2005, we took further steps in aligning and codifying our values and operations in order to ensure to ourselves and our stakeholders that our practices would live up to our goal of sustainability. Where they do not already, we committed to have the systems in place to ensure continuous improvement towards that goal. This step was taken after input from key stakeholders and careful consideration. We firmly believe that sustainable farming practices enable us to have a sustainable business which creates living wage jobs and healthy products that meet the increasing demands of discerning consumers. In order for us to meet this goal continuously, we need to both ensure sustainable practices "on-farm" and also look at the value chain of which we are an important part, and begin to influence the practices along that value chain. As a result we will look to actively engage with our customers and our suppliers to model and encourage responsible social and environmental practices throughout the system. In this way, we hope to help everyone we do business with meet consumer demands for healthy, sustainably produced food products.

Developing a CSR Framework

Our work during 2005 was focused on developing and implementing into management practice a "CSR Framework" that guides our decision-making and daily practice. We partnered with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), a non-profit organization specializing in working with companies, to understand social and environmental impacts and implement practices to minimize those impacts. The process to develop the Framework began with the TCF management team reviewing the operations of the farm and dairy with BSR to understand the full range of impacts and potential opportunities. As our operations are unique in that we have a closed-loop system between the farm and dairy, we sought standards that borrowed from a wide variety of sources. BSR identified a comprehensive inventory of standards and practices and policies, from the operations of selected companies with leading-edge CSR programs including several of our customers.

The result of this work is a comprehensive Framework to understand and guide our daily practice in an integrated fashion. Our Framework, which follows below, includes an overarching focus on our Vision and Values. From there we look at our operations and practices through the "lens" of Performance Areas which touch all aspects of our operations. For each Performance Area we have identified Indicators which enable us to highlight effort and understand results toward our commitment in that Area. Finally, we have developed Metrics to provide qualitative and quantitative measurement of our progress over time. In this first year of implementing the Framework, we are working toward establishing baseline performance data in all areas.

Our vision

We work hard to constantly improve our innovative model for sustainable agriculture and ethical business practices. The healthy, high-quality food products we bring to market will create growth opportunities for our business partners and employees, while earning the trust of our customers and neighbors.

The next step was to define the farm's Performance Areas. Below you will find the definition of the terms we use for our CSR Framework.

Our performance areas

Performance Areas describe the social and environmental impacts that result from Threemile Canyon Farm's products and operations. Key managers in farm and dairy operations met with BSR to deliberate on the major impact areas from operations, and to identify the activities we would track and report. The Performance Areas align policy, practice, performance and management direction to address the full range of impacts and opportunities of our business, and make CSR a core aspect of how business is conducted. The Six Performance Areas are:

1. Natural Resources
2. Agricultural Practices
3. Workplace
4. Animal Welfare
5. Community
6. Management Systems

Each Performance Area has a Definition and a Commitment statement. The Commitment statement guides our annual goal setting. Like all management systems, these areas will be reviewed and modified to reflect relevance to current and evolving issues and practices.

	1. Natural Resources Definition Natural Resources refers to the conditional state of the land, water, air and animal and plant ecosystems that are affected by the activities of the farm. It also includes the materials that are introduced into the environment and ecosystems, including chemicals. Commitment TCF is committed to minimizing its impact on Natural Resources through the operation of a closed-loop farming system, and the identification and management of Natural Resources that are significantly impacted by our operations.
	2. Agricultural Practices Definition Agricultural Practices provide the operating standards designed to ensure high quality practices and resulting high quality, consistent products. Commitment TCF is committed to providing our customers with the highest quality products and to ensuring that they are produced using sustainable and leading-edge practices that meet or exceed regulatory standards.
	3. Workplace Definition Workplace refers to how we attract, hire, develop, protect, retain and reward our employees and contractors. We acknowledge that our farm and dairy workers are engaged in very demanding positions and that all employees, regardless of job classification, should be treated with respect. Commitment TCF is committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment, in which employees are treated respectfully, motivated to perform at a high level and compensated accordingly, and provided with opportunities for professional growth.
	4. Animal Welfare Definition Animal welfare is the management of the farm animals' nutrition, living conditions, handling and health-care in a manner that promotes livelihood and longevity for animals under our operating control, from birth through death, including insemination and proper disposal. Commitment TCF is committed to providing an environment that promotes a comfortable, humane and healthy experience for our farm animals.
	5. Community Definition Community refers to where we operate, live, source and sell our products. We view the immediate communities around our farm and dairy operations, the communities in which our employees live and the State of Oregon as our primary community. Our business creates economic, environmental and social impacts, positive and negative. Commitment TCF is committed to engage with community stakeholders to understand what role we can best play in community affairs and to help them understand how we operate. We seek to be a positive force in all our communities.
	6. Management Systems Definition Management systems are the necessary and appropriate policies, practices, processes and measures for our key areas of impact: Natural Resources, Agricultural Practices, Workplace, Animal Welfare, and Community. This also includes performance management that ensures that all management and staff are held accountable for their contribution to achieving our goals and expected performance. Commitment TCF is committed to implement management systems that are designed to ensure that we consistently meet and exceed CSR and business goals that we have set and our stakeholders expect, and to help us continually improve our performance in key areas of our business.

Meet Our Employees

Resource Conservation

PDF version of Corporate Social Resposibility Report

2005 CSR Report (pdf 2.5 MB)

Continue reading the 2005 CSR Report

Our CSR Performance and Commitments

Threemile Road Boardman, OR 97818 • 541-481-9274 • mail@threemilecanyonfarms.com