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WAKEFERN/SHOPRITE RETAIL SUSTAINABILITY AWARD PROFILE talked technology and apprised us of Flemington, NJ and a handful of
salad container drums, and now we’re recycling them. Customers are taking buckets home to wash their cars.” Composting is not a local option right now from a logistics standpoint, he says. “We brought in this biotech machine to manage food waste that breaks down anything edible. Think of all the greens, unusable fruits and vegetables. We cull our stands for produce that is blemished or non- saleable at full price and really look to see what we can use in the prepared foods department or deliver to the local food pantry,” he says.
“Green Teams drive a lot of what happens in our stores. It’s why we put out bulletins to members that these containers from the salad bar can be recycled, or significantly cut back our use of paper,” for instance.
“We also support sustainability efforts among different community groups. It’s all hyper localized and doesn’t come from big corporate programs,” he emphasizes. “Our associates know local organizations and what road, beach or river needs cleaning up.”
ED HENNING,
vice president of corporate development, Glass Gardens
About Glass Gardens Stores
The Glass Gardens Family of stores began when Ben and Abe Glass started a produce business together in 1938. In 1955, they incorporated as Glass Gardens Inc., with their first store in Rochelle Park, NJ. Glass Gardens and affiliated compa- nies have nine ShopRite stores, which are owned and operated by Abe and Ben’s sons, Irv and Terry Glass.
Solar Panels
“From high school I’ve been working in supermarkets, everything from A to Z,” says Ed Henning, vice president of corpo- rate development at Glass Gardens. “My tenure at the company goes back to 1960 when Ben and Abe Glass had one 4,000 square foot store and wanted to build a larger store, but were concerned about the high energy costs. Each had a son, and they were young and interested in the supermarket business,” he says of Irv and Terry Glass, who now own and operate the
different equipment,” he says.
“Wakefern has been instrumental in
environmental initiatives, providing members with a number of invaluable tools,” says Garafalo. “It organizes all-day forums, where various expert speakers are present. Wakefern conducted a baseline sustainability study a couple of years ago, so all members could evaluate their progress on a couple of initiatives. It is used for both retail and corporate waste assess- ments.
“Once we were able to get baselines on four main areas, we could determine whether we were doing good or bad amongst ourselves, and better understand the costs and opportunities we were leaving on the table,” he says.
Some costs and benefits are straightfor- ward, most in energy savings with quick paybacks, he explains. Others, such as food waste diversion, can be less clear.
Garafalo says the collaborative process between Wakefern and its members works well. “Wakefern helps us do store waste assessments by going through all of our garbage in the stores. Results are then brought back to our Green Teams. These teams are comprised of a group of very engaged, volunteer associates who help us find ways to reduce that waste,” he explains.
“Our biggest focus in produce is trying to maintain freshness and deal with cull. It’s the short life of the product that creates the greatest challenge in maintaining proper variety and inventory levels. Produce results in shrink faster than other items in the store. We have to find ways to use it quickly or divert it. Wakefern has helped with our analysis.”
JOSEPH COLALILLO, president, ShopRite of Hunterdon County
About ShopRite of Hunterdon County, NJ
The Colalillo family has been serving the communities of Hunterdon and southern Warren County for more than 50 years. It started with a small store in downtown
employees. “Now we have three stores with over 1,100 associates, and we are finalizing plans to open two more stores this year in Pennsylvania,” says Joe Colalillo, second- generation president of the company he joined in 1983.
Green Teams
When Joe Colalillo agreed to take on the additional role of chairman and chief exec- utive at Wakefern Food Corp. in 2006, the largest retail cooperative in the U.S. couldn’t have chosen a more dedicated sustainability backer, according to Suzanne Forbes, environmental affairs administrator at Wakefern. In fact, Forbes points to sustainability actions Colalillo took in his own stores as models for other members to follow in moving sustainability initiatives forward.
“Wakefern’s corporate teams are central points for sustainability initiatives,” says Colalillo, “but the store members/owners and their associates are churning the ideas and solutions based on their community’s needs, and passionately bringing those initiatives to fruition.
“Our philosophy at ShopRite of Hunterdon County is pretty simple,” says Colalillo. “You can do things top down or involve all your people.” To that end, Colalillo is a strong proponent of Green Teams, which were created by the cooper- ative to generate sustainability proposals from the grassroots up. It engages volun- teer associates from all departments and job positions and communicates closely with corporate to create initiatives.
“Green Teams are a foundation of our sustainability efforts,” says Colalillo. “We have three stores, and at each store we have a Green Team,” he says. “In our stores, a retail dietitian heads up the team to look at ways to live sustainably and encourage sustainability efforts,” he says, noting that each Wakefern/ShopRite member has their own approach in devel- oping Green Teams.
“We added sustainability as one of our corporate values for future generations. Our Green Teams include one person from every department in the store, who takes the lead to rally people in their area around the whole idea of sustainability,” he adds.
“The Green Team is really our way to get ideas flowing at the store level. For instance, we used to throw away 10-gallon
42 PRODUCE BUSINESS • MAY 2014