Sustainability
Our Sustainability Commitment
With a long-standing history of a commitment to sustainability, our purpose has always been clear – protecting our planet, supporting our communities, and doing it responsibly. It’s the same purpose that continues to inspire the work we do every day. We believe that it is our responsibility to:
- Reduce our environmental impact through business practices, policies, and daily decision-making
- Ensure the health and safety of our associates
- Behave in a socially responsible manner in all of our business dealings
- Making a meaningful difference in our communities through our charitable giving and volunteerism
Whether diverting food waste from landfills or ensuring our products are sustainably sourced, we live out these commitments every day through our current programs and initiatives and constantly looking for ways to reduce our environmental impact.
Animal Welfare
The foundation of our program is based on 10 different species standards that we developed in collaboration with our suppliers and the following five basic freedoms that all animals should have: Freedom from hunger and thirst, Freedom from discomfort, Freedom from pain, injury, or disease, Freedom from fear and distress, Freedom to express most normal behaviors. We work with our vendors to ensure that our brands are sourced from suppliers who meet these standards.
Sustainable Seafood
We partner with both entities and work with suppliers to guarantee that the wild-caught and farm-raised seafood in our stores are sourced from certified, sustainable fisheries and farms and that we are providing the highest quality seafood to our customers while ensuring there will be abundant supply in the future. We have also made the commitment to not supply products identified as red-listed species due to overfishing and compromised ecosystems, such as blue-fin tuna and shark
Sustainable Packaging
We are a proud member of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a leading voice and collaborative for sustainable packaging. Through our membership, we are able to share best practices and emerging research in this space, which has helped us refine our approach to include three key areas of focus: Responsible Sourcing, Design Optimization, Design for Recovery
Recycling Center
In the early 1970s, we opened our very own materials recovery facility in Elizabeth, NJ. Since its inception, our facility has recycled over 2.6 million tons of material. Our warehouses, offices and banner stores recycle over 150,000 tons of material annually including cardboard, plastic bags/flexible plastic film, paper, hard plastics and wooden crates.
We believe the best bag is a reusable bag. That’s why we’ve joined the Beyond the Bag Initiative, working alongside other major retailers to address plastic bag waste at an industry-wide scale. Our stores promote bag reuse with a broad assortment of affordable, sustainable and reusable bags for shoppers. Reusing, recycling and reducing the number of bags we use means less trash is sent to the landfill and fewer environmental resources are wasted.
Responsible Sourcing
Whether we’re directly involved in our suppliers’ practices or not, their actions have a fundamental impact on our own social, ethical, and environmental footprint. That’s why it’s critical for us to have a sustainable and ethical supply chain for our products. Our responsible sourcing requires that supply chains respect human rights, ensure safe living and working conditions, prohibit child or forced labor, and minimize any negative environmental and social impact of their practices.
E-NGO Efforts
To further our commitment to conserve our planet for future generations, we support over 20 Environmental Non-Government Organization's (E-NGO's) at the state and regional level committed to creating cleaner, more sustainable environments in the communities where we live and operate.
Waste Reduction
We also keep materials out of the waste stream and operate our very own recycling center. The facility has recycled over 2.6 million tons of materials since first opening in the late 1970s. Last year, our stores recycled 128,648 tons of waxed and corrugated cardboard, 421 tons of newspaper, 132 tons of office paper, and 38 tons of metal. ShopRite also composted more than 8,200 tons of food waste at our stores.
Awards and Certifications
Whether it is a national Food Recovery Challenge Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) or successfully obtaining certifications via the Grocery Stewardship Certification (GSC), our stores are award winners. Last year, we added statewide conservation awards from the Audubon Society and Earth Share for our conservation and community involvement efforts, and a business award from the organization Organix for our successful composting program (see previous article).
Green Teams
Green Teams are groups of associates that work together to explore new ways to make our stores and facilities more sustainable. They also partner with community organizations and help support local environmental efforts. Right now, we have more than 100 Green Teams, and the number keeps growing.
ShopRite Earth Day Challenge
The annual ShopRite Earth Day Challenge dares volunteers to beautify their communities by cleaning up litter at local parks and beaches. Last year, approximately 4,000 volunteers using one of our FREE Earth Day clean up kits-gathered in hundreds of locations in five states. To date, 55,000 volunteers have participated in the challenge over the past decade.
Planting One Tree at a Time
In partnership with One Tree Planted, ShopRite has helped plant over 50,000 trees and this year we're committed to help plant 25,000 more trees to promote a cleaner environment, create habitat, and beautify communities.
SHOPRITE IN OUR COMMUNITIES
When communities come together to improve the environment, they can really make a difference. ShopRite has worked for many years to cultivate partnerships with environmental organizations in our communities, and each year we add a few more. We now sponsor a number of national and statewide environmental organizations, and hundreds of other community groups.
Thank You to Our Sponsored Organizations
So much is possible when people come together to make a difference. ShopRite works with the following environmental organizations to create more sustainable communities: Audubon Societies of New Jersey & Connecticut, Blue Water Baltimore, Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), Clean Communities of New Jersey, Clean Ocean Action (COA), Coastal Research & Education Society of Long Island (CRESLI), Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey, Delaware Estuary Partnership, Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN), Delaware River Sojourn, Edmund Niles Hyuck Preserve & Biological Research Station, Friends of Island Beach State Park, Greater Newark Conservancy, Hackensack Riverkeeper, Inc., Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., Jersey Shore Partnership, KNOX Inc. of CT, New Jersey Highlands Coalition, New Jersey Envirothon, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, Pollinator Partnership, Raritan Headwaters Association, Soundwaters of CT, The Nature Conservancy and The Wetlands Institute.