While I know we don’t do it for the awards, it certainly feels good when others recognize the importance Whole Foods Market places on green issues. Just last night, we received a Green Power Partner of the Year award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the third time. We were one of only four organizations— and the only grocer — to win the award. We’re honored, and it’s certainly a tribute to the many who have been leading our green mission efforts for so long. Read the rest of this entry »

Earth Day is a big deal around here. So much so, in fact, that we celebrate the entire month of April as Earth Month! Every Earth Day, Whole Foods Market makes specific commitments to do more as a company to help our planet. One year we announced a 100% offset of our energy use with wind energy credits; another year we eliminated plastic grocery bags. These are strong commitments that continue long past Earth Day.

And with each year, our team members push harder to come up with more, better and greener ways of doing things. They don’t shy away from the hard stuff, knowing that we, as a company, are committed to doing what’s right for the Earth. So, without further ado, here’s our 2010 Earth Day commitment:

Whole Foods Market commits to reduce our energy consumption by 25% per square foot by 2015.

How are we going to do it? Lots of specifics below, but putting our stores on a healthy consumption plan, replacing older equipment with more efficient alternatives and ensuring all stores have the tools necessary to optimize operation of equipment will make the biggest dent in the energy reduction goal. This, combined with our aggressive green building, innovative refrigeration practices, advanced transportation practices, more on-site renewable energy and continued wind energy credits will all play a part in significant emissions reductions.

Bottom line: Saving energy costs less than buying it, so we are reducing our appetite for energy from both traditional and renewable sources. We are implementing energy and emissions tracking systems to help us track our progress and identify areas for improvement. We are really excited about the changes this commitment will bring about.

Here are some of the details of what we are doing now and how we are going to move it forward. Read the rest of this entry »

Back in April I hosted a live blog chat about greening our lives. Folks across the country shared great tips and ideas about what steps they’re taking to leave smaller, shallower footprints on our earth. Some of the discussion centered around figuring out the best way to explain to others why we should be more careful with our planet and her inhabitants. Most felt it was best to show by example. Then, while we’re walking our talk, if questions come up or it seems appropriate to expound on certain subjects, we all agreed to “go for it!”

So a couple of weeks ago during dinner, I mentioned that I’d be heading to our town’s middle school with Sustainable Scituate (our town is part of Sustainable South Shore in Massachusetts) to help cultivate the many vegetables and herbs growing in the newly dug organic garden. This garden is going to help stock the town’s food pantry and be shared with some elderly neighbors. Read the rest of this entry »

At home, we all keep our refrigerators closed and we turn off lights and televisions when we’re not using them, right? That’s just common sense! Until recently, though, larger energy-saving projects like upgrading to more efficient windows or installing solar panels weren’t attractive to the majority of homes, especially if they competed with projects that would enhance a home’s appearance or provide additional space like an extra bedroom or bath. Other than on your bill at the end of the month, many of the results of energy investments can’t be easily seen. Also, we weren’t connecting our increasing demand for energy with the increasingly negative stress on our planet. When we turned up the thermostat, we didn’t see the oil or natural gas that was burned to provide us with heat or the dirty coal that generated much of our electricity – and we didn’t see the air pollution it caused either.

Just like in our homes, many commercial businesses were approaching energy efficiency the same way. There’s only so much money to go around for improvements and, in most cases, projects designed to generate additional sales or remodeling that improved appearance edged out energy investments. Even so, environmentally conscious businesses like Whole Foods Market did things to encourage recycling, mass transportation and using less packaging through our bulk foods departments. Read the rest of this entry »

On my previous blog “What Makes a Company Green,” a reader asked for more on our composting efforts, and I’m happy to be able to provide information about this green mission commitment.  Composting has several definitions and our programs vary across the country, but here is a general overview of how it works.

Read the rest of this entry »

Kathy Loftus, a limb-dwelling (as in “out on a limb”) mechanical engineer with a creative writing and communications bent, joined Whole Foods Market in 2006 to fulfill the Company’s desire to create a national vision and mission for an overall energy management strategy.

For many years, Whole Foods Market has had a Green Mission program.  It’s grass roots and supported at the top, and it’s helped us achieve incredible results in protecting our environment.  For the last two years, we’ve been coordinating a holistic approach to energy management as well as helping develop and share best strategies for facilities management, green engineering/building and reducing our overall carbon footprint and environmental impacts. While this strategic company-wide energy green vision was formally initiated a couple of years ago, we’ve led the way in moving the industry toward support for renewable and alternative energy and green building for many years.

I made a decision to join this group while, gulp, taking less pay, because I was stoked to help coordinate and realize the mission and maybe equally as important to work with people who care…about other people, their planet and good food…and not necessarily their net worth.  It’s sort of in their DNA to have this green mission, and it’s been snugly nestled into the ethos of Whole Foods Market for more than 25 years.

So why then, if Whole Foods Market is so committed, have we not scored well on some recent reports on green companies? A thorn in my side, to be sure! I know personally about all of our diverse initiatives, from composting and recycling to developing and maintaining quality standards and certifications like Marine Stewardship, Forestry Stewardship, LEED, Energy Star, Green-E (renewable energy credits) and on to sponsoring responsible packing forums and eliminating plastic bags and polystyrene from packages shipped to us from our vendors. How can these reports NOT show us as topping the list?!

Well, a lot of it has to do with tracking and reporting. We know our programs are making a difference but formalized reports need to see “before” and “after” data. We totally agree that makes sense and we want to be able to see those numbers ourselves. Being able to measure helps us identify other areas for improvement. Baseline energy usage or consistent access to usage information has been a challenge for us and it’s a key barrier for many companies who operate multiple locations across the country. That’s why we joined the EPA’s National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency to collaborate with utility providers and develop solutions for all companies like ours, but it’s going to take some time for that governmental process to work. We’ll keep helping there but since we don’t’ want to wait, we are now taking the initiative to work with a third party.

Board-level governance is another area of import for formalized reports. For example, some companies get high marks for creating positions like “Director of Sustainability.” As I mentioned before, we’re green to the core.  Rather than have one or several people at the top dictate what types of major goals will be achieved by a date far out into the future, we have people working on avoiding and reducing impacts every day.  We dream up ideas and work together to help the goals be realized.  For example, Whole Foods Market brought together 65 team members and leaders from around the country along with ten environmental experts last May for a Green Mission Congress, where attendees focused on identifying lofty yet achievable goals in the areas of green buildings, energy and water management, transportation, packaging and communication/education/awareness and outreach for team members and our communities.  A number of short and long term goals have been endorsed by all teams and are moving toward implementation.

I’m proud to work with people who constantly raise the bar.  Beginning years ago by providing foods in bulk (no packaging waste!) and recycling containers for our customer and then on through the years of work developing the national organic standards, we’ve been focusing on fulfilling our stated core value of caring for our communities and environment.

We continue that commitment today in a multitude of ways:

• Supporting Marine Stewardship Council seafood and Forestry Stewardship Council wood.
• LEED gold for one of our recently opened stores and have 20 plus stores registered with USGBC for certification at various levels.
• Banning plastic bags and polystyrene from packaging.
• Installing the world’s first fuel cell at a supermarket (Glastonbury, CT),
• Numerous solar installations in the works.
• Partnering with Department of Energy (DOE) to develop the Commercial Lighting Solutions Program and a host of other programs
• Moving closer to zero waste with many regions diverting more than 80% of waste by recycling and composting.
• Conducting Sustainable Packaging Forums with vendors and providing compostable food containers for our prepared foods venues.
• Implementing many energy efficiency programs: near real time enterprise energy monitoring and reporting (some sub-metering), installed doors on some medium temperature cases, testing LED lighting in refrigerated cases and other applications
• Feasibility testing of an on site wind turbine for the Pigeon Cove Seafood Processing Facility in Gloucester, MA
• Site renewable (waste to energy) energy project for the North Atlantic Region’s Commissary in Everett, MA

We’ve got a lot more in the pipeline, and I’m looking forward to sharing details about all of the great stuff we have going on in future postings.