Burgerville cans its sustainability director

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Burgerville, the fast-food chain that built an empire selling fresh local foods in the Pacific Northwest, confirmed Monday that its director of sustainable programs, Alison Dennis, was let go.

Officials at The Holland Inc., which operates Burgerville, say they remain committed to sustainability at their 39 fast-food restaurants in the Pacific Northwest.

They say, however, that with sustainability programs firmly in place at Burgerville restaurants, the company will shift focus to a new model that places the programs in the hands of a team of corporate executives.

The change led to last week's departure of Dennis, who had been with the company for four years. Dennis declined to comment.

Many initiatives on Burgerville’s long list of sustainability programs pre-date Dennis’ tenure. They include making signature burgers with local beef from Country Natural Beef, a farm cooperative founded in Oregon that supplies vegetarian-fed and antibiotic-free beef to the chain. Burgerville also buys eggs from cage-free hens, offers seasonal desserts made from local ingredients, and makes onion rings from onions grown in Washington and Oregon.

That the company purchases 100 percent renewable wind power credits, converts used cooking oil to biodiesel and has bike-friendly drive-through windows has only sharpened its image as the greenest fast-food joint around. Burgerville also boasts an employee-led recycling and composting program and eco-friendly packaging.

Jack Graves, chief cultural director of Burgerville, said shifting those programs from a sustainability director back to corporate executives changes little for the company.

"We’ve been operating this way for probably 50 years but the word 'sustainable' really never showed up on the scene until eight or nine years ago," he said.

Burgerville has been putting heavy focus on buying fresh berries, beef and cheese since approximately 1995, he said.

Dennis, however, has been the face of Burgerville’s go-green initiatives since "sustainability" became a mainstream buzz word. A popular speaker on the subject of sustainability, Dennis was frequently front-and-center amid media attention and fanfare as observers marveled at Burgerville’s achievements.

She was responsible for all of the sustainability programs, and for building direct relationships with sustainable farmers, ranchers, fishermen, cheese makers, bakers and food processors in the Pacific Northwest.

Graves said those relationships would not change, and the reins would instead be passed to The Holland’s executive leadership team, a five-person team comprised of Graves, CEO and president Jeff Harvey, chief financial officer Kyle Dean, chief operating officer Janice Williams and chairman Tom Mears.

"Alison did a great job and was a great contributor and helped us anchor a lot of these things that we've got going," said Graves. "I think she taught us well."

He added that it was time for the company to shift to a more distributed model of sustainability initiatives.

Graves said the changes did not indicate future layoffs at Burgerville or signal economic distress at the company. He said sales have stayed flat for Burgerville throughout the recession. The privately held company does not disclose annual revenue, but confirmed it’s more than $60 million.

Lee van der Voo, lvdvoo*at*gmail.com, is a freelance writer for Sustainable Business Oregon.