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then the green leaders talk to each other on what’s working and how to get their program working better.
We really believe if you empower leaders on sustainability, they will in turn empower their team members at the store and make sure these initiatives are being followed and carried out.
PB: Could you elaborate on how this affects product sourcing and suppliers?
Carlos: Our products might be healthy when you consume them, but is the supply chain of our product healthy within itself? We started doing audits of our suppliers, focusing rst on our main suppliers, encour- aging sustainability practices.
PB: Could you speak directly about produce suppliers?
Carlos: Produce was one of our rst initiatives, which is huge. Produce is repre- senting 25 percent of our sales, and is a main part of our store. We started a program where we reached out to all our produce suppliers and provided information on our sourcing standards, requested certi cations and third-
party audits on their sustainability practices on their use of pesticides and herbicides, and fair treatment of people, Fair Trade, for example, in developing countries, child labor and slave labor, having them provide certi - cations and independent veri cation of these things.
Now we have general sustainability stan- dards our suppliers adhere to, but we’re still going down the path of developing processes for veri cation companies are meeting to adhere to those standards. We have more than 17,000 products we carry, so our
approach has been to focus on the products that have the most impact and from there working down the supply chain.
PB: I wanted to follow up with you on issues of produce-related sustainability requirements. You mention herbicide and pesticide levels, for instance. The produce industry is concerned that misconceptions are spread by the media. One example is the Environmental Working Group’s annual Dirty Dozen list. What are your views?
14-SPROUTS / MAY 2018 / PRODUCE BUSINESS