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position, where a big part of her job is devel- oping and training the Green Teams in every store, standard procedures and best practices in regard to recycling, color-coding bins, making sure everybody has the tools they need, etc.
“We’ve always had some guidelines, but we had a lot of stores doing their own thing. Working with Jason, we’ve ‘Wegmanized’ things to make the process more official and ensure everybody is on the same page, that all stores are using the same signage and consis- tent messaging,” Dunn says, noting that some of the divisions have quar terly meetings, where all the Green Teams come together to exchange information. The primar y reason Wegmans developed these guidelines, according to Wadsworth: “How can there be accountability for recycling if not ever ybody knows what to do?”
Customers can bring in their plastic bags, their cell phones and inkjet car tridges, batteries, bottles, cans, and any paper prod- ucts to recycle. “Last year customers brought back 775 tons of plastic bags, or 1.5 million pounds to help you visualize,” says Wadsworth. Those all go to a central location reclamation center.
The produce department looks at shrink reports on a daily basis so managers know
how to change their orders based on what people are buying and the trends. But they also get a monthly recycling report, so they know what their rate is for their store and can measure progress, according to Wadswor th, adding, “There’s a little competition brewing between the stores.”
As Wegmans continues to grow, so does the impact of its sustainability measures, as well as the challenges of coordinating strate- gies chainwide. “We like to empower our employees to go to their produce manager and say, ‘I think we could do this in a better way,’ and the manager will listen,” says Colleluori. “There is a bit of flexibility for a particular store to make a change, but when the produce manager sees this might be something that the entire chain could benefit from, then it gets moved up the ladder.”
PRESERVING PRODUCE
“First of all, we like to reuse what we can in the store,” says Wadsworth. “Then we donate to people, so every store has a connection with a food bank in its area. Animals come after that. So we have a lot of stores that have rela- tionships with local farmers who come in and pick up the produce waste free of charge. It’s
After attempts to reuse culled produce in stores or give dona- tions to food banks and animal farms, produce is composted when economically feasible, says Jason Wadsworth, sustain- ability coordinator.
MAY 2013 • PRODUCE BUSINESS 55