6 grocers making a difference

Dear Leading Ladies,

Nearly a third of all food produced in the United States is wasted. While this number is startling, in light of the fact that one in six children goes to bed hungry, it is also significant because of the effect that food waste has on climate change. When zero waste is achieved, and no food is sent to landfills, methane emissions and our carbon footprint are significantly reduced.

Zero for Hannafords

Hannaford Supermarkets announced three weeks ago that its grocery stores have reached zero food waste. According to the Boston Globe, the 183-store, Maine-based company sent no food to landfills last year, the first chain in New England to reach this milestone.

The Globe reports that Hannafords sent 65 million pounds of unsellable food products to pantries (In 2019, Hannaford rescued and donated over 25 million pounds of food for hunger relief), farms, and anaerobic digestion facilities, where the waste was converted to energy at Exeter Agri-Energy (EAE). In other words, inedible food is transformed into electricity that is sold back to the grid. Cool, huh?

Part of what Hannaford has changed is industry practices in purchasing and marketing. It has been common to put more on the shelves than customers need, and even to promote untested new products which may prove unpopular. This leads to excessive waste in the form of unsold food as well as associated packaging and transportation costs. Hannaford is curtailing this policy in their stores.

Hannafords’ efforts reflect the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Food Recovery Hierarchy. As you can see in the infographic below, reducing surplus food is at the top of the list and landfill/incineration is the last resort.

We wanted to find out what other local grocers are doing to cut waste and promote sustainability. So we wrote to executives at a number of chains. We heard back from Stop and Shop, Crosby’s, and Trader Joe’s, and found extensive information on the websites of Whole Foods and Albertsons (Shaw’s owner). We learned a great deal about the variety of ways these different grocery chains are combating the sustainability issue and want to pass that information on.

Donating surplus food to food pantries seems to be universal. Composting, donating past due food for farm animals, and utilizing newly developed equipment to create power sources are other means that some corporations are adopting.

Stop and Shop

For example, the CEO of Stop and Shop, Gordon Reid, let us know that the 415-store chain, owned by the same Dutch conglomerate as Hannafords, diverted 108,034,000 pounds of unsellable food to panties, farms, and anaerobic digestion in 2020. They actually own and operate their own anaerobic digester, which opened in 2016 and converts food material into a power source. Stop and Shop diverts 75% of its waste from going to landfills or incineration and recycles more than 350 million pounds of material including plastics, cardboard and food waste. They are working towards zero waste, according to Reid. This is all in addition to an impressive partnership with Feeding America that involves donating food to local food banks and pantries weekly.

Trader Joe’s

Erin Baker, vice president of marketing and communications for Trader Joe’s, informed us that “approximately 99.5% of all Trader Joe’s products were sold to customers, donated to our food recovery partners or composted.” She added that the company is committed to “bridge that remaining half-percent” and get to zero food waste in their 503 stores. Through Trader Joe’s Neighborhood Shares Program, they donate 100% of their unsold but usable products to food recovery agencies, adding up to nearly $345 million dollars of food and beverages in 2020, or approximately 69 million meals.

Trader Joe’s, according to Baker, also works with composting partners and with Agri-Cycle on waste diversion. “In 2020, we composted and recycled over 670 million pounds of materials (including organic material, cardboard, plastic wrap, plastic buckets, and damaged pallets).”

Crosby’s

Don Ouellette, vice president of operations for Crosby’s Markets, let us know that this small local chain has “worked very hard over the last couple of years to have a greener healthier earth.” For many years, they have supplied local food pantries with hundreds of pounds of food waste. “We have been in partnership with many of these great organizations for years —The Abundant Food Pantry, Beverly Bootstraps and Lifebridge, to name a few. We will continue to move forward to make this earth a better place for all of us.”

Whole Foods

Whole Foods (now owned by Amazon) has considerable information about their sustainability efforts on their website. They offer few facts and figures, however. They do say that the company has a “food waste strategy to prevent and divert food from entering a landfill, mirroring the EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy.” Alluding to what sounds like the Hannaford commitment to avoiding surplus stocking, the Whole Foods website states that “Whole Foods Market Team Members are trained on food waste efficiency, from smart ordering to food donation.” In partnership with the Food Donation Connection, Whole Foods Market annually donates millions of pounds of perishable and nonperishable food to local food banks and food rescue agencies across the United States. They also participate in composting, anaerobic digestion to create renewable energy, and animal feed programs.

Mentioned on their site (but not on the sites of other chains) is Zero Waste Business Council certification by the Zero Waste International Alliance which certifies companies that have reached at least 90% of the goal of 100% zero waste. ZWIA’s mission is to work “toward a world without wasting through public education and practical application of Zero Waste principles.” It appears that the certification was for three Whole Foods stores in the San Diego area in 2013.

Albertsons (Shaw’s)

The Albertsons website (they own Shaw’s) also lists a lot of information about what this large corporation is doing nationwide to combat food waste. Like the others, Albertson’s is donating food to food banks, food pantries, hunger relief agencies such as Feeding America; and diverting waste from landfills through animal feed and anaerobic digestion.

What is supercool is that the anaerobic biodigester creates “biogas and soil nutrients for a local organic farm.” Then “the biogas is converted to electricity and used to power the onsite plant that packages fruit grown using a soil amendment made from our organic waste. These organic crops are then sold in our stores, completing the circular economy of food.”

While the site does not specifically mention zero waste, it does speak of Albertson’s commitment to the EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy and its active membership in the Food Waste Reduction Alliance (FWRA). By the way, the FWRA site is a great source to consult about food recovery.

So what do we do with all this information?

We believe we can use it to inform ourselves and others as we make decisions about where to spend our food dollars. We encourage you to ask other grocers – think Roche Bros., Wegmans, etc. – what they are doing to progress towards zero waste. But let’s also keep in mind that in 1990, 70% of groceries were purchased in a chain grocery store while now it is only 44%. And today, 23% of all groceries are purchased at Walmart, with Target becoming a big player as well. Furthermore, the fastest growing segment of the grocery business is among the various dollar stores. Sustainability efforts in those stores are as important to learn about as what we found at the traditional grocers in our area.

Our next kNOw MORE!

Our next kNOw MORE! event is Monday, May 24 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. We will be discussing the documentary film, Chasing Ice, and the threat to our disappearing glaciers and to life as we know it on our planet. Register here for this free Zoom event.

This week, we recommend you watch

Chasing Ice, for rent on YouTube for $3.99 and available in some places on Amazon Prime. And, if you happen to be near the Berkshires, visit MassMOCA to see artist Blane De St. Blane’s enormous exhibition of multimedia glaciers along with a video filmed in the upper Arctic community of Utqiiagvik in Alaska. The Museum of Science Boston also has a compelling permanent exhibit, “Arctic Adventure,” which can be viewed in person or online.

Spring has sprung and so has hope.

Therese Melden
Judy Klein
Mary Barthelmes
Beth Forbes
Leading Ladies Executive Team
ladies@leadingladiesvote.org
leadingladiesvote.org