Matthew Toavs, M.S. Green Mission Specialist Whole Foods Market

Transcription

1 Matthew Toavs, M.S. Green Mission Specialist Whole Foods Market

2 Over 316 stores in USA, Canada, and UK 12 operating regions 64,000+ Team Members FY2011 Sales $10.1B

3 Selling the Highest Quality Natural and Organic Products Available Satisfying and Delighting Our Customers Supporting Team Member Happiness and Excellence Creating Wealth Through Profits & Growth Caring about our Communities & Our Environment Creating ongoing win-win partnerships with our suppliers Promoting the health of our stakeholders through healthy eating education.

4 Selling the Highest Quality Natural and Organic Products Available Satisfying and Delighting Our Customers Supporting Team Member Happiness and Excellence Creating Wealth Through Profits & Growth Caring about our Communities & Our Environment Creating ongoing win-win partnerships with our suppliers Promoting the health of our stakeholders through healthy eating education.

5 Composting is our opportunity to close a loop, recycle the nutrients contained in our food waste, and get them back into the soil to grow more food. This is much better than entombing those nutrients in a landfill and critical to us as a food company!

6 Without Composting With Composting 10% 25% 25% 75% 65% Trash Recyclables Trash Recyclables Compostables

7 Because Whole Foods Market has a strong focus on perishables, we have a slightly higher percentage of compostables in our waste stream: 65% at WFM vs 50% or lower for other grocers.

8 From an audit performed at one of our Chicago locations by Waste Management s Green Squad SM

9 Buy it - review spoilage and use reporting tools to eliminate overordering Cull it - produce becomes ingredients for other teams Donate it - to local food banks Compost it Adapted from US EPA s Food Hierarchy

10 Prep Foods makes soup, gelato, hot bar, salads Edible items staged for use on other teams Meat makes stuffed peppers, kabobs, & garnishes their case Bakery makes fruit tarts Produce Culls Inedible items and waxed cardboard go into compost toters Unclaimed items are staged for food bank pick-up Compost Compactor

11 Our Devon, PA store partners with two area homeless shelters to take the Health Starts Here message to them and to feed the patrons high quality, chefprepared meals. Culled flowers are used for each table s centerpiece. We wear chef coats when we serve to demonstrate that the residents are important and that we are proud to be there with them. We are culling about 1,500 pounds of usable food each month from this small store.

12 Where we have been able to join or establish a route system with a local composter or trash hauler, we have used the store compactor for compost rather than landfill-bound materials. Landfill then goes into a smaller top-loading dumpster.

13 In some other markets where no route system has been established or no industrial scale compost facility exists, our stores palletize compostable waste and backhaul it to their regional distribution center where it is consolidated and sent on to the composter.

14 A few stores have partnered with local farmers to pick up food waste for composting on their farms. Our store in St Paul, MN works with a farmer with a route system to pick up food waste for conversion into hog feed.

15 Some stores have also piloted on-site pulpers, composters, waste-to-water, dewaterers, etc. We have been approached to try a large scale, on-site vermicomposting system in Toronto. Our Lincoln Park store in Chicago, IL donates produce waste to the Lincoln Park Zoo.

16 We offer finished compost bagged for sale in our floral departments. Our Mid-Atlantic region repurposed pails from prepared foods and specialty departments and sold our compost in refillable buckets. Many regions work with their composter to donate compost to local community and school gardens. We can also possibly work with local vendors who might like to buy it and use it on their farms. (win-win partnerships with our suppliers!)

17 The North Atlantic and North East Regions collaboration with other grocers, MA DEP, and EPA led to the publishing of the Supermarket Composting Handbook: p/recycle/reduce/smhan dbk.pdf

18 Concept of Compost is as old as the Earth, but it is a new language to most people. Even at WFM, new Team Members often ask, what is compost? Constant Training and Accountability In-Store Educators at each store and facility. We strive to erase the just throw it away mentality because, of course, there is no such place as away.

19 Des Moines, IA Detroit, MI Indianapolis, IN FL Oahu, HI Omaha, NE

20 Non-food compostables Liners, cutlery, etc. Certified and facility verified compostable Weeding through the plethora of Green Washing Biodegradable GMO feed stock vs. Whole Foods Market values Whole Foods Market has enrolled all of our private label products in the NON GMO Project. We actively pursue compostable packaging that is manufactured from Non- GMO and Non-Food crops.

21 Composting food waste is a fundamental component of our Green Mission s quest for Sustainability. Collaborating with a wide variety of vendors and competitors has paved the way to success. Our passionate Team Members and commitment to our core values have driven Whole Foods Market to find and create a diverse array of composting programs.

22 Questions? Matthew Toavs Whole Foods Market Global Support 550 Bowie St, Austin, TX