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Weis proudly promotes its five pillars of sustainability.
by improving refrigeration efficiencies, alleviating dangerous refrigeration leakage, and generating significant savings, according to Jeremy Hazlak, energy projects manager.
Weis shares with shoppers how the store is conserving energy.
“The greatest impact on carbon foot- print is refrigerant. The second would be electricity,” he says.
Overall, the company’s goals are to reach a 20-percent reduction in Green-
Signage throughout every store initiates a call to sustainable action.
house Gas Emissions (GHE) by 2020, and to reduce energy use by 2 percent each year, says Olenick.
“We’re very committed to EPA’s Green- Chill program and what it represents in
RETAIL SUSTAINABILITY AWARDS - WEIS MARKETS
ONE DISTRIBUTION CENTER SERVES AS WEIS’ EPICENTER
The DC is at the epicenter of the chain’s sustainability loops, from recycling to logistics and managed transportation systems. “We don’t want to put anything in the trash,” says Joe Klemin, vice president distribution. “We want to be as efficient as possible, leverage resources, and create closed loop systems,” he says.
In addition, as part of its corporate sustainability mandates, Weis intends to replace 50 percent of its tractor fleet with cleaner fuel vehicles within three years, combined with its fuel savings measures.
“The biggest thing on the radar is working on cutting-edge transportation strategies,” says Klemin, pointing to its partnership with TOPCO Associates, the member-owner co- op headquartered in Elk Grove Village, IL, for managing inbound freight. Weis is looking to elevate those efforts. TOPCO is branching out to different categories and services, and managed transportation is one of those areas, according to Klemin.
Weis intends to replace 50 percent of its tractor fleet with cleaner fuel vehicles within three years, combined with its fuel savings measures.
potatoes, apples and cabbage,” says Sands. Locally grown produce is channeled from the farms through the centralized DC, where it is inspected and monitored for quality and safety and then distributed to Weis stores. In that respect, Weis avoids supplemental distribution arrangements on a store-by- store basis with nearby farmers, according to Dan Koch, vice president of fresh. pb
“Linking up the supply chain distribution network and merchandising is new to us,” says Chris Sands, business analyst for distri-
bution. “We are peeling away the layers and fully exposing all the true costs,” he continues. “Empty miles are a killer. We want to make sure we’re getting more bang for the buck on the backhauls. We will also help our vendors get better as they have backhaul issues as well.”
34 / MAY 2015 / PRODUCE BUSINESS
“We’re just getting into local opportuni- ties to backhaul produce. We looked at