Sustainability practices are saving Hannaford Supermarkets around $15 million annually, while diverting 125 million pounds of waste from landfills and keeping more than 430 million pounds of greenhouse gases from being emitted.
The findings came from a review conducted by the non-profit Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, Hannaford said Monday.
Manomet examined all 184 Hannaford stores owned by Hannaford in 2014, and granted immediate certification through its Grocery Stewardship Certification program to 179 stores for the comprehensiveness of their sustainability practices. The remaining five stores achieved provisional certification.
"Hannaford customers care about the environment and expect us to be good stewards on their behalf," George Parmenter, manager of sustainability for Hannaford, said in a statement. "Certification of our stores demonstrates that our associates work every day on sustainability that is both good for the environment and good for business."
In its certification research, Manomet asked detailed questions of each store about the kind of equipment used, daily workplace practices and the handling of waste. Among the findings:
• Energy efficiency and waste-reduction efforts at the supermarkets reduced greenhouse gas emissions by as much as taking 41,892 cars off the road.
• Stores employ electric and natural-gas conservation practices that save the company more than $2 million a year.
• Water conservation efforts save at least 43.4 million gallons of water annually.
The certification process helped individual stores identify areas where they could improve aspects of their sustainability programs to do even better jobs of protecting the environment.
“The GSC is helping Hannaford systemize how they manage for operational sustainability at the store level across the chain. Hannaford has experienced exceptional employee engagement through the certification process,” Peter Cooke, program manager of the grocery stewardship certification program for Manomet, said in a statement.
| Suggested Categories | More from Supermarket News |
 |
|
 |
|
