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since the beginning, and it’s one that will con- tinue for as long as Publix continues.
We certainly have aspirations. We will occasionally set goals for ourselves internally to do better. An example of a goal that we’ll make public soon is our “Climate Leaders Partnership” with the EPA.
Mira Slott: I was reading about that.
Michael Hewitt: Publix has joined EPA climate leaders.
Maria Brous: Yes, in June of last year.
Michael Hewitt: We’ve committed to cal- culating our carbon footprint, which as it turns out is not that easy to do. In a company the size of Publix with retail operations spread out across five states, manufacturing and dis- tribution operations as well as various other support facilities, it is a challenge to capture all of those greenhouse gases, but we are doing it.
We’re going through the verification process with EPA right now to certify those carbon footprint calculations, and later this year, we hope to announce a goal for reduc- tion of our greenhouse gas emissions.
Maria Brous: We’re always looking for ways to improve and it becomes more difficult the more stores we have. Mr. George [Jenkins] imagined success as 100 stores, and now that’s 10 fold. How do we continue to improve our communication when we’re so spread out, with so many diverse markets and customers that we serve? That becomes a difficult task and we spend a lot of time focused on that communication. It starts at home. That’s where it really begins, breaking it down to its simplest parts and then working from there.
Mira Slott: You had mentioned earlier in the interview about cash incentives to inspire innovation. I’m having this picture of a family- like culture at Publix, where everyone’s a part of the whole process.
Maria Brous: We followed through with the concept at our conference last year, and people didn’t even know there were going to be cash incentives. That was the great part about it. We had already measured year over last and the moves that had significantly saved as part of the ‘Get into the Green Routine.’ Savings were huge and people were recog- nized for that at our conference. We rewarded the district manager and that collective for achieving the greatest improvement year over last, and they were really excited.
Mira Slott: You create a challenge. Michael Hewitt: It’s competitive.
Maria Brous: But retailers are competitive
by nature. It’s in the blood.
Michael Hewitt: We’re all part of the same
family, but each of us...
Maria Brous: Like siblings, we don’t miss the opportunity...
Michael Hewitt: ...to compete with each other.
Mira Slott: That’s great.
Maria Brous: It is, and then being able to submit their ideas. Take the recyclable floral buckets, for example. It was an associate who did the job day in and day out and was think- ing, “How could I improve this process? How could I make it more sustainable?” She sub- mitted the idea. She did the little work-study in her store. Turned out, she made a great idea a reality. We did a whole story on her in the Publix newsletter.
Michael Hewitt: We recycle several mil- lion of those buckets ever year now. It was just an item that we had missed, an opportunity that we had missed. If we had not pushed sus- tainability all the way down to the associate level, then those kinds of ideas would not be able to bubble back up.
Maria Brous: Just to show you how we’re looking at every aspect of our business, there was a time where we used to have photo labs in store. We don’t have any in-store photo labs anymore, but the reports that are auto- matically generated still had the page for that service. We had an associate that said, “We don’t need this wasteful blank page.” Think about 1,000 stores printing that extra page day in and day out. Part of it was how we could have missed something so obvious, but that just goes to the point that something so small can make a really big difference.
Mira Slott: And also that you set up an environment where someone felt comfortable and motivated to say something, too.
Ken Whitacre: Now, if we could, I would like to talk a little bit about your background. Maria, you’re a new mother.
Maria Brous: I am. I almost hesitate to say “new” because he’s already a 30-pound, walking little boy with a mind of his own.
Mira Slott: I imagine Publix is very family- friendly with childcare.
Maria Brous: We are, definitely. I think
there was one family that had 18 family mem- bers that were working for the company. We have a CareWise club as part of our health benefits program. I joke that the whole reason I joined the club was for the simple fact they were giving away a onesie to a future Publix associate and I was getting it! So he will be working at Publix when he’s old enough to push a cart, that’s for sure.
Mira Slott: Will both of you describe your career paths and what led you to your sustain- ability work?
Michael Hewitt: Actually, Dave Duncan, our vice president of facilities is the team sponsor. Presently, we don’t have any one at Publix with sustainability in their title, but I think that we will in the future.
Maria Brous: That person is looking more and more like Michael.
Ken Whitacre: We wanted to talk a little bit about you, Michael, and learn about your evolution in the company, how you started, where you came from, what you bring to the table and your vision. We’ll also talk to Maria about how she fits into the whole sustainability team at Publix.
Michael Hewitt: Very briefly, I am a native Floridian and very proud of that. I’m a second generation, actually and a lifelong Publix cus- tomer. But I didn’t start working for Publix until about three years ago. I have a back- ground in environmental engineering and have spent years working with various regula- tory agencies as a consultant and for other pri- vate companies. But when I got to Publix, I was very excited because what I found was a substantial culture already in place. People were passionate about not just the basics of recycling, energy and water conservation, but really interested in doing the right thing, in supporting the community.
Whenever we talk about sustainability, sometimes the message of that people ele- ment gets lost, but sustainability is really about people, as well. It’s not just about envi- ronment, and Publix is a company that cares a lot about its associates and its customers.
So, my role as manager of environmental services is first and foremost to make sure that Publix is 100 percent compliant with the myri- ad of environmental regulations that apply to our daily operations. But then, working at Publix has given me the opportunity to get involved at the ground level with the building of this new sustainability program, which real- ly isn’t new anymore. Ed Crenshaw kicked that off in August or September of 2007, I think, when our corporate sustainability team first started meeting.
Maria Brous: That’s when we pulled in all the different departments that were doing
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