KANSAS CITY — Grupo Bimbo, Mexico City, strives to nourish the world, but that purpose goes beyond food, according to Javier Gonzalez, executive vice president of the company, in charge of operations for Mexico and Canada and the new business unit Bimbo QSR.

Mr. Gonzalez laid out how Grupo Bimbo uses innovative ideas to realize this purpose during his keynote address at the American Society of Baking’s (ASB) virtual BakingTech conference, held Feb. 16-18.

“Our purpose is to nourish the world,” he explained. “That’s not just providing goods for customers and consumers, but it also means sustainability and working in good faith to help our world to grow.”

Whether creating nutritious, delicious food or pursuing its sustainability initiatives, Grupo Bimbo recognizes the importance of innovation in furthering its purpose. Mr. Gonzalez highlighted some of the innovative things the company has done to keep its employees safe during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, implement its sustainability programs and even developing new technologies.

When it comes to the pandemic, Grupo Bimbo is not only rolling out the standard best practices of PPE and social distancing, but the company has also enacted some added technologies and rigorous COVID-19 testing. Associates experiencing COVID-19 symptoms are tested with PCR testing. The company takes the extra step of providing antibody testing for associates known to be in prolonged close contact with those who have tested positive for the virus.

He added these initiatives provide an alarm system that reminds associates to wash their hands every 20-30 minutes, but most impressively is the sanitation tunnel. Each facility screens associates through temperature checks and health questionnaires, but they also are sent through a sanitation tunnel that sprays them with a quarternary ammonium salt solution.

Further, Grupo Bimbo developed an app to track COVID-19 among associates, provided psychological support through webinars, and sent home those who were in high-risk categories such as pregnant women and employees with cancer, hypertension and other comorbidities.

“We know COVID-19 is still here with us, and even after the vaccine things will be different than before,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “This is a challenge we face, and we are convinced that we will have to do something different for the rest of our lives.”

Grupo Bimbo’s well-documented commitment to sustainability relies on innovative initiatives to reach its aggressive goals, such as all facilities being powered 100% by renewable energy by 2025.

To reach that goal, the company has relied on power purchase agreements, virtual power purchase agreements, onsite solar power, green tariffs and renewable energy certificates. To date, it has about 75 solar rooftops including the largest in Mexico, Chile and Peru.

Grupo Bimbo has also invested in sustainable agriculture, working with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to discover how productive sustainable agriculture practices can be for corn and wheat in Mexico.

In its work with CIMMYT, Grupo Bimbo was able to reduce emissions from fossil fuels for corn production by 30% and decrease emissions from wheat by 19%. The company also cut water consumption for wheat and corn by 18% and 10%, respectively. These reductions also came with promising yields.

“For starting numbers these are great numbers,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “We want to work with other wheat producers in the world, starting with the United States and Canada, to install these new sustainable agriculture practices. That’s an important goal we want to accomplish.”

All of this innovation is supported by a culture at Grupo Bimbo that fosters new ideas not just for products but across all the company’s initiatives.

Mr. Gonzalez shared how the global company has worked to break down silos to promote collaboration and cross-functional innovation. He walked attendees through the company’s innovation path, which encourages this type of innovation.

“We wanted to create dynamism in the organization by expanding this process that we created a few years ago,” he said.

This model moves toward developing the organizational conditions that promote innovation. To do that, Grupo Bimbo ensures it has the culture, tools, processes and organization to implement its innovation path model as well as continuously developing innovation talent and capabilities in all its employees.

Mr. Gonzalez’s entire keynote will be available on-demand on ASB’s website.