I work in a part of Whole Foods Market that our customers probably don’t think about very much – one of our regional distribution centers. Here in Maryland, my facility stocks and moves most of the product that you find on the shelves in our Mid-Atlantic Region stores. We’re moving pallets of food around all day and we do that with a lot of forklifts and pallet jacks.

Each of those forklifts has a 2000-pound lead-acid battery. In fact, each forklift has two huge batteries – one in use and one being recharged. A battery charge only lasts about 7 hours. That means that every one of those forklifts needs a 2000-pound battery changed for every shift. That’s 14,000 battery changes in a year, totaling about 4000 labor hours. Wow!

When we first started talking about hydrogen fuel cell-powered forklifts, we were looking at a cost of about $17,000 per fuel cell. Ouch. A lead-acid battery costs $3500. But then everything changed when GENCO received a $6.1 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Plug Power, a clean energy solutions company, connected us with GENCO and a deal was born. They could now offer us the hydrogen fuel cell-powered batteries for $3,000 each. With the other transition costs involved, turns out that there wasn’t a cost savings to us but the deal was net zero.

Some companies might have stopped right there. Who needs the headache of a big change if it doesn’t affect the bottom line? But that’s what is different about Whole Foods Market. We don’t just look at the numbers. We guide our business by our Core Values and two of those are about supporting and caring for our team members and the environment.

Remember those 14,000 battery changes? That involves a team member dealing with a very heavy piece of equipment. Of course we have a machine that lifts the 2000-pound battery, but it is definitely safer for them to switch to refueling the fuel cell, which takes less than a minute. That’s only 250 hours a year instead of 4000 – we’re sure they can find better things to do with their time! Check out this video that shows the complete re-fueling process:

Switching to fuel cell technology will also allow us to reduce our carbon footprint by the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the use and charging of those lead-acid batteries. We expect this conversion to save up to 80% of emissions – roughly the equivalent of removing two passenger vehicles from the road per year for each forklift truck powered by fuel cells. My facility is excited to be piloting this project for Whole Foods Market and there is already a ton of interest from our distribution centers in other regions. That could add up to a lot of reduced emissions…and a lot of happy team members!

Here’s the gist of the problem:

As you may know, reuse is higher on the waste hierarchy than recycling or disposal. And prevention and minimization are higher still. So from a Green Mission standpoint, the best thing we could provide would be either no cutlery (so everything would have to be “finger food”) or reusable cutlery. At our Global Green Mission Congress in May of ’08, attended by about 70 company representatives (including store-level team members as well as Vice Presidents), this goal was adopted: Utilize reusable plates, bowls, coffee cups, drinking cups and serve-ware in cafes and team member break rooms (where Health Department regulations allow).

Wherever we can adopt this goal and use reusable cutlery, we should be doing so. Yes, it adds expense to a certain extent, and, yes, it requires certain operational accommodations to make it work — such as bussing, dishwashers and the like. And, no, reusable cutlery does not cover all the bases, so there is definitely a need for cutlery that customers can take with them when they’ve purchased food to go. That need can best be served by recyclable cutlery first and then by compostable cutlery.

Where possible we should be offering cutlery that can be recycled. Of the plastic resins that are known to be highly recyclable, the best choices for cutlery are either #1 PET or #5 Polypropylene. In a number of our regions, we have implemented the “Gimme 5” recycling infrastructure for recycling #5 plastics. This is a partnership with Stonyfield Farms, Organic Valley and Preserve/Recycline to promote recycling of these plastics (many of which are containers such as yogurt cups and other dairy packaging) and to return them to Preserve to be made into the housewares, picnic goods, and other items such as toothbrushes and shaving razors that this company makes and we sell. More stores are getting involved with this program.

Compostable cutlery is where we get into the “nitty gritty” of some of the most challenging issues we face in trying to put our values into action. Here’s why:

• To be truly “compostable” by our standards, a product or material needs to be certified as such by a recognized 3rd party entity. The best known in the U.S. is the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), which certifies items according to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D6400 standard, essentially requiring that items need to break down and decompose within a strict time frame, without leaving toxic residues such as heavy metals, and must not inhibit healthy seed growth in the medium into which they evolve.
• Source material for cutlery must be certified non-GMO to meet the very strict guidelines Whole foods Market adopted for the use of materials in our supply chain.
• We strongly promote the idea that source biomaterials (as they are referred to) should not be derived from food-based feedstock, such as corn, potatoes, wheat, soy, etc. — food should be used for food, not plastics or fuel.
• Any cutlery developed would need to perform at least as well as existing cutlery (in other words, not melt or dissolve in hot liquids!)
• It needs to meet our cost needs for a commodity item as vast as this is for us.
  Finally, it needs to be an acceptable material for commercial-scale composting at “end of life” since this stuff doesn’t break down well in home composting environments.

The good news is that many producers and manufacturers of foodservice wares know our requirements and are scrambling to make cutlery that “gets it right.” The bad news is that very few have hit on all cylinders yet, and those that have got most of this right, are not yet cost-competitive enough to fit our supplies budgets. We firmly believe that the answer to this challenge is to hold out for the “real deal” and to aggregate our demand together with other end-users in the natural products industry, as well as other industries seeking this type of goods such as the health care and hospital industry, in order to ultimately drive the cost down through this aggregated demand.

So why don’t we just take items with some of the “right stuff” as a starting point, rather than holding out for the perfect solution? (In other words, why not settle for “less bad” as a step towards “good?”)

The answer to this may not be so apparent, but it lies in the fact that Whole Foods Market is considered to be the voice, the authority, and the standard-setter for so many things that touch our industry. Many look to us to be the barometer for trends, especially when it comes to “green” issues. Because of that, we strongly feel that we need to hold out for the most optimal solution. One that really speaks to all of the issues and values outlined above, even on so seemingly simple a category as cutlery. It is coming; it will come. And we can dramatically influence the course of that development, if we keep the faith and hold fast to our values and standards.

That’s the story with cutlery. Thanks for asking!

Lee believes his two jobs (EcoCzar and Forager) are the coolest in the company, allowing him to combine several of his passions in a way that makes work a dance. (Thanks, Coach!) With Whole Foods Market since 1996, Lee enjoys all of the many natural wonders and flavors of New England with his wife Susan and their two teenage sons.

Have you heard about The Prince’s Rainforests Project? His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales is asking everyone to help send the world’s biggest SOS on behalf of the rainforests before the international climate change meetings are held by the United Nations in Copenhagen this December.

The rainforests are a rich, green belt that surrounds the world at the equator and contain over half the living plant and animal species on the planet. Without their services in storing greenhouse gases, creating oxygen and rainfall, and providing a home to the most important array of biodiversity on the planet, our Earth would be a very different place and certainly one uninhabitable by mankind.

Vast quantities of carbon are stored in the trees and soils of tropical forest areas. When they are burned and cleared this is converted into carbon dioxide, which helps to accelerate climate change. Recent estimates say that some 17% of greenhouse gases come from deforestation. Tropical rainforests are also removing about 15% of the carbon dioxide we are releasing. Clearing the rainforests thus creates a double whammy for the climate – it creates a source of emissions and at the same time removes a vast natural sink.

Check out this video and sign up to send your Rainforest SOS to the world. The future of the rainforest is our future too.

Being “green” is one of our most important missions at Whole Foods Market! Our Whole Body team, along with some of our biggest vendors, has been hard at work developing sustainable packaging standards requirements for all of the products we sell in Whole Body, including our own 365 Everyday Value™ and Whole Foods™ brands.

Enacting change by setting clear environmental packaging guidelines has the potential to alleviate environmental strain, reduce our carbon foot print and lead the way for other manufacturers to make these changes as well. Helping the planet while we help our customers find the best there is in supplements and body care!

Our Whole Foods brand of supplements is the number one selling supplement brand in our Whole Body departments. We have worked with our manufacturer to source a new 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) content plastic bottle for those Whole Foods products that are currently sold in the amber plastic PET #1 bottles.

Post-consumer recycled content bottles are made from other bottles that have been recycled. 100% PCR content bottles use less energy and water to produce. They generate far fewer greenhouse gases, while also diverting reusable materials out of the landfill and reducing our reliance on virgin petrochemicals. By some estimates, 100% PCR PET has a carbon footprint that is 60% smaller than virgin plastic.

It is important to note that our manufacturer is using PCR sources that are FDA approved and safe for food contact-providing the same barrier characteristics and shelf life of our previous bottles. They have identified multiple sources for this high quality PCR source resin and all of our products in PET #1 bottles will transition to this new material. And after you use the high quality Whole Foods brand supplements inside, toss the empty bottle in for your community recycling program to re-use again and again. These bottles can be recycled repeatedly for a substantial impact on total carbon emissions over the life of the plastic.

We are starting to convert products to the new bottles now, as we produce them, and expect the full product line of PET #1 bottles to be transitioned by late in 2010.

Finding the new bottles is easy. The labels have a leaf with this symbol on it:

Reducing virgin plastic consumption and still allowing for recyclability. Those are ideas we can all support!

We are so excited to announce that we have just finalized the largest purchase of renewable energy credits (RECs) ever made by a U.S. retailer. Woo hoo! Whole Foods Market purchased 776 million-kilowatt-hours of RECs from wind farms, which equals 100% of our company’s electricity use in all of our North American locations. And that’s not all! Nearly 90% of this year’s purchase is specifically helping fund E.ON Climate & Renewables’ (EC&R) Texas-based Panther Creek wind farm. Our investment is going to help bring new power to the grid.

Panther Creek began operating its first phase in 2008 and its final phase of construction was recently completed. Our purchase of RECs has provided valuable additional financing to the project. EC&R is developing a number of large scale wind projects in the U.S. over the coming years and extra funding from REC sales will play a crucial role in their growth.

So, what does our 776 million-kilowatt-hours purchase mean to the environment? It will help avoid creating up to 868 million pounds of carbon dioxide pollution – which is comparable to taking more than 72,000 cars off of the roads for a year, or planting nearly 3.6 million mature trees. Not too shabby.

Of course, if you’ve been following along, you know this isn’t our first or only green effort. We’ve been a proponent of offsetting since 2006 – that’s when we became the first Fortune 500 Company to offset 100% of electricity use with RECs. Thanks goes to our partner, Boulder, Colo.-based Renewable Choice Energy, who has helped make this happen. Our continued purchase of RECs is part of our comprehensive energy commitment, which also includes plans to more than triple the number of stores with solar panels and to invest in energy-reduction opportunities while retrofitting existing stores with energy-efficient lighting, equipment and mechanical components.

You can read more about our green efforts.

Green building is a top priority for us and with SouthGlenn, we were very pleased to contribute to the redevelopment of an existing center to bring commerce back into the neighborhood without sacrificing any green space. With energy efficient systems and a healthy indoor space, our new store earned a “Green Globe” award. Green Globes® is an online rating and on-site assessment system for eco-friendly design and operating functions that’s a good fit with our vision of sustainability.

While shopping the store and cruising the back hallways, you’ll see high efficiency refrigerators, walk-ins and coolers that maximize energy usage as well as conscious lighting choices like solar tracking skylights. By installing 40 skylights, we are able to track the sun’s position in the sky to maximize the amount of daylight harvesting that takes place and cut back on lighting needs around the store. We are really excited that 80% of our retail space is naturally lit from daylight penetration!

In terms of energy, we have reduced our consumption by 9% or 200,000 kilowatt-hours of electric energy when compared to a typical food sales establishment of similar size. We made it happen through:

• Heat reclaimed from refrigerated cases, which reduced electric energy consumption by 100 gallons per hour, equaling 110,000 kilowatt-hours of electric energy saved
• Many closed door cases to increase refrigeration efficiency and night curtains on open cases



• High efficiency ECM fan motors in the cases and Walk-ins; variable speed condenser fan control; oversized condensers and no CFC refrigeration
• Computer controls interconnected with lighting, refrigeration and HVAC for energy management
• Efficient lighting at only 1.2 watts per square foot which reduced electric power demand by 17.4 kilowatts below standard. This also reduces the annual electric energy use by approximately 89,000 kilowatt hours!
• Solar tracking skylights
• LED lighting in all door cases

The use of durable and long-lasting materials such as concrete and tile also ensure that we were mindful of our environment in our purchasing decisions. Other sustainable materials used include: skyblend, MDF, aluminum, reclaimed barnwood, steel and 3-form. In all restrooms, high-speed hand dryers were installed to eliminate waste from paper towels and reduce energy consumption by up to 80%. Automatic water faucets ensure that water turns off as soon as it is no longer needed, and all of the urinals are waterless also, saving thousands of gallons of water every month.

Other sustainable initiatives adopted by SouthGlenn include supporting local producers to reduce “food miles” by offering over 1,200 locally-made products, stocking an extensive bulk aisle to reduce packing and increase value, and conserving resources with an extensive recycling and composting center. Outside of the store, multiple bike racks welcome riders, while four car plug-ins at the front of the store celebrate those who drive electric cars. If you live in the area, we hope you’ll check out the new store and see how cool it is, or check it out online and let us know what you think.

Lauren Evans started with Whole Foods Market six years ago in the Prepared Foods department at the Sixth Street store in Austin. She helped open our Austin Lamar store and then moved to Colorado to open Tamarac and Belmar as a Prepared Foods supervisor. Lauren started her marketing stint at the Pearl Street store in Boulder, later transitioning into a regional role as an Associate Marketing Coordinator.

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.

Tampons are a big part of the monthly female lexicon. American women spend about $2 billion on them annually and will use about 11,000 during their lifetimes. But they are a product that few people regularly discuss.

That dynamic needs to change: Tampons, which come into contact with some of the most sensitive tissue in a woman’s body, aren’t as straightforward as they seem.

Tampons are typically made from a variety of materials including conventional cotton, rayon or a blend of both fibers. Conventional cotton is one of the “dirtiest” crops in the modern world. According to the USDA, in 2003 U.S. cotton farmers applied an eye-popping 55 million pounds of pesticides to their fields. And global cotton production also uses high levels of pesticides.

Many of these agricultural toxins are classified as “extremely or highly hazardous” by the World Health Organization. In addition to polluting groundwater and soil, seven of the 15 most commonly-used cotton pesticides have been identified as possible human carcinogens by the EPA. (Others are known to damage the nervous system and are suspected of disrupting the body’s hormonal system.)

When we buy tampons made with conventional cotton, we contribute to these kinds of environmental pollution.

Rayon also needs further scrutiny. The wood pulp that forms a base material for most rayon is typically treated with chlorine-based bleach. This manufacturing process results in the creation of chlorinated toxins, which can accumulate in the environment over time.

Conventional tampons can also contain any number of other ingredients that women might not want to be intimate with. These include absorbency enhancers, synthetic deodorants and artificial fragrances. Add it all up and the term “feminine protection” becomes a bit of a misnomer.

An alternative is to use organic cotton tampons made from pure natural cotton that hasn’t been grown in a soup of pesticides. They don’t contain rayon or synthetic additives, and most have been manufactured using a chlorine-free process that doesn’t create chlorinated toxins. When you buy organic cotton tampons and pads, you make a statement that you want to make the world a safer, healthier place for you, your family and generations to come.

If you think like I do, when you need to replace appliances and other household items you go for the most environmentally-friendly choices out there, like Energy Star® certified models and water-saving appliances such as tankless water heaters and front-loading washing machines. I’m fortunate to live in Austin where the city offers rebates on appliances like these, so not only can you save money in energy and water consumption costs, but you can get a hefty rebate. I got $100 back from the City of Austin when I bought my front-loader washing machine a few years ago, which is no small change!

But alas, my relationship with my beloved 6-year-old front-loader came to an abrupt halt last month when it started making a REALLY LOUD banging noise during the spin cycle. The repair man asked me questions like: “You used ‘HE’ soap, right?” and “How much soap did you use?” I quickly realized that I had not done enough research. I swear I read the manual but, as it turns out, it was going to cost more to repair my washing machine than to buy a new one. Ouch!

Hence, the reason for this post. If I didn’t know that you should only use “HE” (high efficiency) soap, maybe there are others out there who don’t know! And also, even though I always use eco-friendly soap like Seventh Gen or Ecover which are “HE” soaps (it says so on the label), I apparently used too much and created excessive suds that washed away the grease in the bearings and completely ruined my washing machine.

Since this happened I have talked to many others who did not know this, so let me offer some advice to help you save your washing machine! Only use HE soaps, and follow the manufacturer’s recommendations to figure out how much soap to use. The Soap and Detergent Association (who knew?) has created a very informative PDF that I now highly recommend everyone check out.

Have you discovered some little known hazard while greening your life? Please share your knowledge to help others avoid the same issues by posting a comment below. Thanks!

This may be the best re-use of our Better Bag that I’ve come across. Cut drainage holes in the bottom and grow lettuce. Thanks to customer Kerry Michaels for coming up with this idea and the step by step instructions.   This is such a cool way to re-use one of our lunch-size bags. Honestly, I had no clue that growing lettuce could be so simple. Sounds like a great weekend project!