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SPROUTS’ CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER TALKS ABOUT THE FOUR PILLARS OF SUSTAINABILITY
PB: Could you give us some broad- strokes concepts about how sustainability ts within the overall Sprouts philosophy?
Dan: As you can see from your tour of the store, produce is our signature depart- ment, and we’re striving every day to bring value to our customers, especially in produce because we understand how important that is to making healthy choices and beginning that journey toward eating better.
First and foremost, we think of ourselves as a people- rst organization, and so in our company we’re committed to putting people on the sales oor who are knowledgeable and can speak to the attributes of our products.
PB: Are you looking for produce specialists?
Dan: Actually, what we’re looking for are great personalities. And we train on the skills. For example, last year we had more than a half-million hours of formalized training. We place an enormous focus on equipping our team members for success. What we nd is in our store, which gener- ally carries about 17,000 unique items, a lot of our guests aren’t as familiar with what we carry as in conventional stores.
PB: You’re bringing in items that might not be as available in a conventional supermarket?
Dan: Yes, that’s correct, and as a result, we feel it is important to put team members on the sales oor who can speak to that.
What we’re most proud of is we believe every meal is a choice, and each day when we open these stores, people who walk in are on some stage of that journey. Some people are eating clean; some others might be taking their rst step, and so instead of eating a deep-fried chip, maybe they choose a kale chip.
We’re not trying to legislate what people eat, but we are trying to provide choices, and education around what might be a healthier choice.
In terms of our commitment to sustain- ability, obviously a brand focused on healthy
8-SPROUTS / MAY 2018 / PRODUCE BUSINESS
choices and being a good partner in the community is also going to be committed to sourcing in line with our passion. So, sourcing is one of our pillars, and it is a very important area of our sustainability.
We have four pillars to our sustainability vision. We’ll start with the communities, because we want to help build connected communities that are improving the quality of life for everyone.
The second area is our commitment to providing ful lling work for our team members so they can realize their potential, and that is important to us because we are a people- rst organization.
We also, of course, are committed to sourcing as I mentioned. We hold high standards in terms of the ethical treatment of animals — as well as people — when it comes to our supply partners. We believe that is a critical component as well.
PB: Is there an order in terms of prioritizing the pillars, one over the other? Dan: I wanted to wait to talk on the envi- ronment because this is what you might be most interested in, and that is our commit- ment to zero food waste by 2020. We’re making signi cant strides to achieve that goal and to provide whatever food we can to local foodbanks and to those who are in
need.
With so much fresh product in our stores,
we have solid partnerships in all of our trade areas to make certain we are making the best use of product that is still very good but
might have a blemish. So rather than just discard, we want to make certain we get it to those in need.
We are making aggressive steps to be a responsible retailer when it comes to energy conservation and carbon footprint, things that all companies leaning forward in sustainability are concerned with. So those four pillars — environment, sourcing, team members and community — are very important to us and we’re working every day to make progress.
PB: Following up, from a sourcing standpoint, do you have certain require- ments or sustainability standards you’re requiring of suppliers.
Dan: We do. What we’re trying to do is to be a good partner to the supply chain. So, we’re working together with them to move the ball down the eld in this area. And because we have so many partners that might be smaller in terms of size and not as large as some of the names that you might be familiar with, in many cases our partnership is about educating them and helping them achieve the sorts of standards we are seeking to achieve over the long term.
PB: People might be at different levels.
Dan: Exactly. We are transparent about our standards and what we’re trying to do, but we’re also trying to be good partners and shoring them up along the way so that these companies can make progress within their own organizations.
q&a with
DAN SANDERS
Chief Operations O cer Sprouts Farmers Market
WAKING UP WITH A HIGHER PURPOSE