Local initiatives bring benefits

Sustainability is the future for retailers that today have an opportunity to build loyalty among environmentally conscious consumers, reduce energy and operational costs, and take a leadership role in setting a conservation agenda that would otherwise be dictated by activists and regulators. In a multipart Retailing Today series on sustainability, retailers and service providers have detailed methods of approaching environmentally friendly business practices. However, addressing the most pressing environmental concerns of consumers in its trade area should be the priority for retailers determined to build successful sustainability programs.

Publix has been in the forefront of developing programs that address local and regional challenges. Hurricane Wilma in 2005 was a learning experience for Publix, which struggled, yet succeeded, in quickly opening locations from Key West to Vero Beach, Fla., to help consumers and relief agencies replenish critical supplies. “Here, storms are becoming stronger,” Maria Brous, director of media and consumer relations at Florida-based Publix, told Retailing Today.

“We never know what’s going to happen until end of season. It’s really about being committed to communities. They expect us to be up and operating after a storm. We don’t want to create false expectations.”

Even as Wilma hit, Publix was in the midst of installing 400 new generators in coastal Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. “All of our stores have a backup generator, but each of them average about 60 kilowatts,” Brous said, “not enough to power the entire store. The new generators provide 500 kilowatts of power.”

Wilma-related power failures hobbled stores that had not yet received the new generators and those not slated to receive new generators at all. As a result, Publix will add more than 270 additional generators to its program so that it can cover every Florida location where it was practical to do so.

Publix’ sustainability efforts have generated recognition. This summer, Sustainable Florida honored Publix with its Sustainable Large Business Best Practice Award, designed to recognize best efforts to create more environmentally sound communities. Programs cited for the award, besides the generator effort, included Get into a Green Routine, an employee education project launched in 2002 that has helped the supermarket reduce electricity usage by 7%, and waste materials initiatives that compel re-use of plastic involved in product shipment.

Meijer is another retailer that has launched a series of environmentally related initiatives that focus on concerns in its trade area—Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. In May, Meijer debuted its first LEED-certified unit in Allen Park, Mich. It incorporated knowledge that Meijer had gained in earlier environmental initiatives as well as experience Meijer’s new president Mark Murray brought from supervising sustainable building programs as president of Grand Valley State University and as an administrator at Michigan State University.

The Allen Park store uses landscaping to channel rain from its roof and property to an adjoining wetland, maintaining a wild environment and keeping water from burdening local sewer systems. It also delves deeper into low-energy electrical generation—Meijer is a major electricity consumer in many communities—and sustainable construction methods and building material recycling.

Rather than a fleet of Allen Park clones, Meijer expects to use its experience in building the store flexibly. “I fully expect there will be significant elements out of the LEED-certified Allen Park store that help in other areas,” Murray said. Still, all nine stores Meijer plans to open in 2008 will closely follow the Allen Park prototype even though they won’t seek LEED certification, said Stacie Behler, a Meijer spokesperson. “All our new store constructions will be based on sustainable building practices,” she said. “And in every store where we put gas, we will put in E85 pumps.” (In April, Meijer announced a partnership with General Motors and CleanFUEL USA to open 20 fueling stations in southwest Michigan that pump E85, an 85% ethanol fuel.)

On another tack, Meijer established a partnership with the Nature Conservancy, donating $450,000 to fight invasive plants and rolling out a line of Recommended Non-Invasive trees and shrubs at its garden centers.

Partnering with the Nature Conservancy provided Meijer with instant credibility as it addressed an emotionally-charged local concern: invasive plants degrading the Lake Michigan shoreline. Nature Conservancy spokeswoman Melissa Soule said the Meijer initiative had ramifications beyond the immediate effort. “It’s almost a pilot program, in way. We’re curious to see how much of an impact on their bottom line it will have. Hopefully it will be prove the concept that something that’s good for the environment isn’t exclusive of its being good economically.”