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But more recently, we worked on finding a way to compost, or otherwise convert that material into a soil amendment or a fertilizer- type product. We’re still continuing to work on that. It’s challenging. Even though I think Publix does a pretty good job at recycling and reducing waste, we’re still trying to find better ways to do it.
Mira Slott: Can you talk a little bit about the logistics of handling recycling for such a large operation? It seems like it could be a real challenge with 1,002 stores.
Michael Hewitt: It is. In a company as big as Publix with so many operations spread out across the entire Southeast United States, it’s a challenge. We have training that we provide to all of our associates at the store level on how to collect this material and to collect as much of it as possible. It then gets loaded on our trucks. After our trucks are unloaded at the store, the recyclables go back on the trucks and they go to one of our centralized recycling centers. And that’s where it all gets collected, sorted if needed, bailed if it needs any bailing — we do some bailing at the stores — and from there, it gets sent off to the recyclers.
Maria Brous: Education is a big compo- nent that Michael spoke about. We do a lot to really look at those processes. We need associ- ates to do their part. We need every associate to understand what can be recycled, what can be bailed, how we keep bail integrity to make sure there’s not the possibility of contamina- tion, which in turn rejects that bail.
So, really getting them involved, whether it’s with posters, because some are much more visual learners, or with continuous training, from the very first day that they start working at Publix, they understand our standards.
We have an orientation for every associate that comes onboard, and part of what we speak about in that orientation is our sustain- ability, what that means to the company and our vision.
Mira Slott: How do you work with your suppliers in terms of packaging and different types of products that they need to switch over to in their businesses?
Maria Brous: I’ll let Michael answer a part of that, but to put it into perspective, we’re a Southeast retailer, with 1,002 locations in five states: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Car- olina and Tennessee. We’re one of five chains that have a 1,000-store-plus landscape, but we are the only one out of the big five in this tight Southeast area.
We’re not spread out through the United States, which is what we see with our counter- parts. So, we’re really focused in this area, but we’re a big powerhouse.
Our standards are very high. Our vendor community understands we expect a large
commitment on their part. We expect them to be sustainable. We expect them to continue looking at their practices and their packaging.
Obviously, we have other retailers that also ask the same thing and look at the sustainabil- ity part, but when we look at changing to a wax alternative in produce packaging, for example, how do we do that? We send out let- ters to our suppliers asking them to really look at their practices.
We have a vendor scorecard that comes in. Based on everything from their operations to how it affects our operations, we kind of look at each vendor in totality and really ask them to take a look at that. Sustainability is on their scorecard as well.
We have that working relationship and the better the suppliers do on their vendor score- card, the more information we’re going to share with them about our business. So, they want to understand it. There is definitely a motivator for them to understand our busi- ness more. They want access to figures and dif- ferent things, so we tell them, “The better you perform at all of these criteria, the more we’re willing to sit at the table because we under- stand your commitment, and vice versa.”
Being a Florida-based company, many of our relationships with our suppliers were made on a handshake, from, say, Mr. George [Jenkins] and Duda Farms, and others. You can talk to a lot of these suppliers, especially with produce, and many of those deals went on a handshake and a commitment that we wanted to do business with another Florida- based company. We ask them to look at mea- sures. What are the alternatives? What are the potential savings? There may be an initial investment, but the long-term returns are what we’re looking at to be more sustainable.
Ken Whitacre: Would it be fair to say that
it is harder to do business as a supplier because of the scorecard and the sustainability efforts?
Maria Brous: No, because we do business with reputable companies that are looking to be sustainable as well. They’ve heard the mes- sage, they’ve heard the appeal from the public, and I think it’s the way. It may be more hip to be looking at those sustainable practices, but we’ve been working on this for quite some time. It’s not something that’s come as a big surprise to our suppliers. These are conversa- tions that we’ve had at the table for many years, and have been working on different programs and pilots.
Michael Hewitt: Just like Publix cannot be sustainable without the participation of all 146,000 associates, we’re also not an island. We cannot be sustainable without partnering with our entire supply chain. We’ve done work with our suppliers, with our buyers, to try to find those alternative packaging options that not only are more sustainable because they increase the recyclability of the card- board, but also do not degrade or harm the quality of the product that Publix and our cus- tomers demand.
Mira Slott: Are you trying to eliminate product packaging in some instances?
Michael Hewitt: We’re doing more of that all the time, and another way that we’re work- ing on that is to partner with various associa- tions. Through participation in these associa- tions, we get connected not only with suppli- ers and manufacturers, but we also get con- nected with other retailers.
Maria Brous: Sustainability is not propri- etary. We believe that it is an industry move- ment that shares on best practices and we are more powerful together. When we work with retailers that would typically be referred to as competitors, we get more accomplished for the good of the environment.
Ken Whitacre: Have you formulated an official share group of retailers that you meet with on sustainability?
Michael Hewitt: We meet with retailers through several associations on a regular basis, again, not just food retailers, but other retailers as well, because many of us share a common interest. We all use energy, we all need water to operate, and we all want to reduce packing and increase recycling, but there’s another element that I want to make sure we don’t forget: the customer.
Through various efforts, we are trying to partner with our customers to help them make more green, sustainable decisions in their purchasing practices, to provide them with tips on how to be more sustainable at home. A good example of that is our reusable bags, which we started selling quite a while ago. In fact, we have offered reusable bags for
30 PRODUCE BUSINESS • MAY 2009