Environmental Responsibility
SUSTAINABILITY fosters our success
Our vision of environmental responsibility is about respecting and managing the earth’s natural resources. We at Joseph Farms invite our friends and customers to adopt a philosophy that has been a guiding force in the way we do business for over 70 years.
Turning Pollution to Power
SOlar Power
We house the largest privately-owned solar power system ever installed on a California dairy, supplying renewable energy on-site for our family’s dairy farm. By harvesting the sun’s power on 7,840 solar panels across 8 acres, the fixed-array system provides on-site renewable energy that will significantly reduce its need for electricity from the local utility and avoid an estimated 27,500 metric tons of CO2 emissions over the next 20 years. This reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is equal to planting more than 706,000 trees in the next 20 years or removing more than 292 cars from the road annually. The amount of power produced could power 282 average homes a year.
Turning Methane to Power
Cows generate a tremendous amount of methane each day to the extent that it has become a measurable pollution problem. At Joseph Farms we built the first large-scale methane digesters in California. The system produces bio-gas from our lagoon anaerobic digester. This gas is scrubbed and generates up to 1.6 megawatts of electricity. Also, waste heat is captured and used to produce steam that fuel the boilers for the cheese production facility.
Through this process we generate up to 75% of the electricity needed for cheese production and packaging. Not only does this reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, it also improves the air and water quality and produces a truly green renewable energy source.
