The competitive Green Power Partner of the Year award recognizes EPA Green Power Partners who distinguish themselves through their purchase, leadership, overall strategy and impact on the green power market. We were recognized for increasing our green power purchasing to include nearly 818 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power in 2010, which is more than 100% of our purchased electricity use. According to the EPA, 818 million kWh of renewable energy credits (RECs) is the equivalent amount of electricity needed to power more than 71,000 average American homes annually.

For 2011, we have committed to purchasing RECs from NextEra Energy Resource’s EarthEra program, 3 Degrees and Renewable Choice Energy. This will be the fifth year for us to offset 100% of our purchased electricity use. We currently rank third on EPA’s National Top 50 Partners list, which highlights EPA Green Power Partners that have completed the largest annual voluntary purchases through July 6, 2010. Back in 2006, we were the first Fortune 500® company to purchase wind energy credits for 100% of our electricity use across U.S. operations.

Whole Foods Market uses a comprehensive alternative energy approach to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. We have committed to reducing our energy consumption by 25% per square foot by 2015 and we’re increasing our adoption of on-site energy sources — like fuel cells, waste to energy and solar power — as well as including electricity offsets from wind power. We’re proud to be recognized once again by EPA for our commitment to advancing the development of the nation’s green power market.

Hats off to everyone at Whole Foods Market who works so hard to help us live up to our green mission ideals.

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.

Energy Reductions in Existing and New Stores

Some of our existing stores are using less energy through our comprehensive retrofit and upgrade projects, which include smarter refrigeration, state-of-the-art lighting and controls systems, and advanced efficiency motors for HVAC and refrigeration. After initial metering results led us to estimate that energy reductions may be close to 20 million kWh over the past two years, we were motivated to earmark $10 million over the next 18 months for additional retrofit and upgrade projects.

In new stores, energy efficient design, alternative refrigerants and advanced systems dramatically reduce the amount of energy and traditional refrigerant gas being employed. Several stores have been awarded the Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill certification, which recognizes eco-friendly commercial refrigeration systems. Early examples of reduced energy are apparent in several new stores: Colorado’s SouthGlenn store which, after only a few months, is using roughly 35% less energy than two older, slightly larger nearby stores and California’s Santa Barbara store uses 45% less energy than a nearby store of comparable size.

As part of a Retail Energy Alliance partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE), we were awarded resources to design new stores and retrofit older ones. The program pairs us with National Renewable Energy Labs (NREL) to create, test and validate design concepts that will move the industry toward net-zero energy commercial buildings.

Wind Power

This is the fourth year that we will offset 100% of our electricity use at our North American locations with wind energy credits. This year, we will purchase more than 810,000 mWh through 3Degrees, a San Francisco-based provider of renewable energy credits, adding clean, renewable energy to U.S. power grids.

More On-site Renewable Energy

We have a healthy mix of locations that are either hosting or generating on-site renewable energy. There are currently 15 locations supplementing traditional power with solar power. Our San Jose store recently announced they would host a fuel cell, making it the first supermarket in California that will generate enough electricity on site to meet 90% of its needs. This store joins our Glastonbury, CT and Dedham, MA stores, which already have on-site hydrogen fuel cells, and more are planned for future locations. Additionally, the company is testing the feasibility of additional on-site clean energy projects such as wind turbines and waste-to-energy.

Aggressive Green Building Practices

We have almost 30 stores that are either LEED or Green Globes certified, registered or in development. The latest store to announce LEED Gold certification – and the first Manhattan supermarket to earn the distinction – is our Upper West Side store.

Fuel for Product Transportation

Through improved logistical planning, our distribution centers have reduced truck deliveries by more than two million miles and have reduced fuel consumption by more than 360,000 gallons annually. One-third of our truck fleets are using biodiesel. The Atlanta-area distribution center, which uses our South Region’s spent cooking oil to supply fuel for its trucks, eliminates more than 250,000 pounds of emissions per year.

Happy Earth Day!

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.

My husband asked if he could join me, and then my 18-year-old son wolfed down his dinner and said he’d like to come too (after working his summer job: an 11-hour day for a local building contractor). He’s heading off to college in the fall to study social entrepreneurship with a focus on business and environmental courses and has been interested in sustainable agriculture for the past several years.

When we arrived at the garden, we joined the other volunteers donning gloves and lugging tools and immediately saw the fine work the rabbits did in munching a lot of the lettuces; the fencing clearly wasn’t strong enough. My husband figured out how to install the fencing differently and my son started digging a bunch of post holes! The rest of us drove the fencing posts into the ground, weeded or re-planted, and all the while chatted about everything from baby names and organic baby food (one of our volunteers is due in a few weeks) to what we’re doing to save energy at the schools and other town buildings and how soon our town’s wind turbine would be installed.

We quickly realized our common threads and began to wonder how we’d get the word out about how much fun all of this community volunteering can be, never mind all of the benefits derived. We decided we’d send a picture of the mostly “before” looking garden to the local paper and follow up later in the fall with the “after” photo when we’d be harvesting and delivering. No one had a camera, though, and some were worried we missed our opportunity. I wasn’t worried at all!

You see, I’ve been feeling a movement underfoot and a current in the air – what Paul Hawkens calls “Blessed Unrest.” I see and feel more energy being focused in the same “green” direction. For example, a couple of weeks ago I received two emails from people encouraging me to watch the movie Food, Inc. One from a Whole Foods Market team member – not surprising – but the other was from someone who is not associated with the natural foods business. Cool!

Then, while having dinner out the other night, a woman sat next to me and she pulled out her book… Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. Last summer, as part of his role as director on his school’s community service board, my son placed Mountains Beyond Mountains, the story of Dr. Paul Farmer, on the required summer reading list for faculty and students. I told my dinner neighbor that I thought it was a great choice! We spoke at length about the book and about other wonderful things people are doing all over the place.

Then she explained she had recently attended a celebration honoring the efforts of volunteers who helped open the new Scituate Animal Shelter. She’s a veterinarian who donated surgical space. I felt energized by the synchronicity. We knew several volunteers there as well: the lead landscaper was also a volunteer with the community organic garden and several other volunteers are part of the Sustainable Scituate membership. Many of these folks work full time and have young families, yet they find the time to volunteer not only for one great cause but several.

It’s inspiring to see these efforts coming together, the momentum growing and all of these community activists saying: “Yes, in my backyard!” Keep walking the talk… we are making a difference.

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.

Well, the times, they are a’ changing. For our homes, we are looking for the Energy Star Label when buying new appliances. We’ve started installing new windows, more insulation, and weather-stripping. And, of course, we are switching to compact fluorescent type bulbs that last up to ten times longer and only use a fraction of the energy. (If you haven’t done this yet, please do at least one bulb! If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars!)

And in the commercial world, business leaders are starting to take notice as well. Whole Foods Market is making energy efficient changes and sharing our successes with others to encourage more businesses to make change as well. Of course, switching commercial lighting in a 40,000 square foot store is a bit different than changing the light bulbs at home (and the costs are a lot more too!). But we understand the benefit and are making it happen. We are switching many of our stores’ lighting to high performance, energy efficient sources that last longer. Retrofitting just one of our stores saves enough energy to light 200 homes or remove 30 cars from the road – and we’ve implemented lighting retrofits in dozens of stores so far. Other initiatives include switching out motors for various equipment to more efficient types, putting some of our cold product behind doors instead of in open cases (the equivalent of closing the fridge!), and upgrading automatic controls to switch things off when not in use. In new construction and remodels, we are using higher insulation levels, reducing our heating and air-conditioning needs, and switching over to cleaner, on-site alternative energy sources where possible.

In one region of the country alone, we’ve saved more than 9 million kWh…that’s enough energy to power over one thousand homes and remove hundreds of cars off the road. We are continuing down this path and encourage other commercial businesses to do the same. In fact, the EPA estimates that if the energy efficiency of commercial and industrial buildings in the U.S. improved by 10 percent, Americans would save about $20 billion and reduce greenhouse gases equal to the emissions from about 30 million vehicles.

Collectively, we’ve made these energy efficiency upgrades for economic reasons as well as environmental ones. But, the economic crisis and recession could threaten our ability to continue to make these investments. Though it is good for business and good for family budgets to invest in energy efficiency and on-site renewable energy, money and credit are tight. As a business, we need to find innovative energy partners to help in finding ways to continue on this path.

That’s why we are committed to playing a leadership role in working with our partners and suppliers who are making investments with us. From innovating new ways to pay for capital upgrades, to sharing ideas and resources, we’ve got new recipes for success. Utility rebates and resources, tax credits, leasing and purchase power arrangements, and “pay out of savings” programs can all work to help alleviate the cash and credit crunch. With ingenuity and your support, we can develop new ways of getting these projects done.

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.

Although there are hundreds of so called “composting facilities” across the country, there are only about 20 that have gone through the rigorous certification required to handle food waste, and these are typically labeled “food waste recovery sites.”  Many of these are located near large cities and have state or municipal resource programs to help support them (e.g. Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC metro, Columbus/Cleveland and San Francisco).  Unfortunately, not all of our stores and facilities operate near these sites, but passionate team members are working with local communities and municipalities to help cultivate these resources by testifying to their benefits and advocating for the necessary infrastructure. FYI, at Whole Foods Market, we organize a lot of our work by geographical regions of the country and we have dedicated teams working in each of these regions setting up programs specifically suited for that part of the country.

In several regions, the composters arrive at our stores and pick up the food and organic waste, which is then worked in with other businesses’ food and organic waste, and over time, the sun heats up the mix and it breaks down, eventually producing humus or compost, which is a valuable addition to any horticultural or landscaping project. Most of the composters sell this product in bulk by the yard for local farmers, and this helps them raise healthier plants.  It’s also used by community parks, landscapers and even golf courses.

Last year, one region purchased some of this compost product from certain facilities and had it packaged in our emptied food grade white buckets to be sold at several stores, giving these buckets a second or third life.  This year, they’ve got a new way of providing this product to buyers: the compost is packaged in compostable plastic bags that are designed to be cut along the sides of the bags with Xs in the center to mark planting spots. So in the spring, customers may take the bag of compost home, empty it onto their garden, cut the lines, lay the bag right on the bed and plant through the Xs!  This provides a weed barrier and decomposes through the growing season. Also, 15 stores in this region now have “tea” brewers that use the compost material, and customers bring their own containers to the stores and buy the tea for horticultural use.

One region delivers its food and organic waste to a composter using “Green Machines.”  A Green Machine is a closed top dumpster/truck contraption that belongs to our South Region’s Distribution Center (the dumpsters were inherited from an old store).  Several team member volunteers painted them green by having a team painting party. The regional stores use a back hauling process (after deliveries are made to the store and the delivery truck is empty, the store sends back their food waste in wax boxes lined with biodegradable bags to the distribution center.  When it gets there, the bags are taken out of the wax boxes, and the bagged food waste goes into the Green Machine dumpster. Once the dumpster is full it is hauled off to the compost field to start the process.

We see composting as a really important Green Mission solution.  There is clear evidence that food waste and other organic materials, when buried in landfills, are primary contributors to the emissions of methane, one of the most potent of the greenhouse gases contributing to global warming.  So not only does our food “waste” become an agricultural soil amendment that is vital to the production and maintenance of healthy soil and plants, but by preventing it from getting into landfills, we’re avoiding a significant amount of methane from entering the atmosphere. And, using compost also reduces or even eliminates the need for fossil fuel-based pesticides.

Thanks for the question and the opportunity to share our composting successes. Want to try composting at home? Here’s a helpful site to get you started.

I’m looking forward to doing more blog posts, so shoot any questions my way about our green programs and let me know what you are interesting in reading about.

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.