Co-op Sustainability Every Day

By Pat Burns, General Manager

This past Saturday in a symbolic gesture of support for Earth Hour (a worldwide movement for the planet organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature), we dimmed a number of lights in the store. The organization had asked people to turn off all their non-essential lights for one hour from 8:30 to 9:30 PM local time to demonstrate simple changes that could reduce energy consumption. For safety sake, we couldn't turn off our lights, but we did want to show support by dimming some lights.

In less symbolic and more meaningful terms, what else are we doing at City Market to show our commitment to the planet? Here are just a few examples!

  1. In 2013, continuing our work with Chittenden Solid Waste District and Casella Waste Management, we diverted 80% of our total waste from landfills. At the same time, the amount that we compost has jumped to 42% of our total waste. Our greatest gains were in the kitchen and cafeteria where we used new compost and waste bins and better signage to instruct staff and customers on the proper placement of their waste products.
     
  2. Water from our Reverse Osmosis (RO) machine (free to Members) has proven to be incredibly useful in reducing waste going to the landfill. Members and customers used 102,000 gallons of water from the RO machine last year. This is the equivalent of diverting over 650,000 plastic 20 ounce bottles (our most popular size) from the waste stream.
     
  3. Grocery stores are generally considered energy hogs because of the freezer and refrigeration units required to store product. The Co-op has worked closely with Burlington Electric on a number of programs designed to reduce our energy consumption. The most recent has been the replacement of nearly all of our lighting with energy efficient LED bulbs. This change will potentially decrease our electric consumption for lighting by over 30%.
     
  4. In coming full circle to what some folks might say is more symbolic than real action, on Friday, April 25, to celebrate Earth Day, we have partnered with Seventh Generation and Cabot to provide customers with free reusable, recycled shopping bags. For this one celebratory day, we will not have paper and plastic bags available at the registers, but will instead give away the free reusable bags in the hope that customers will remember to bring them back on future visits to the Co-op. While this is only one day, we hope this is more than a symbolic message. Next to plastic bottles, plastic bags are one of the worst products for our landfills.

This past year our Change for Local Non-Profits program (where we donate a nickel for every reusable bag our customers use) generated more than $14,000 in donations to multiple local non-profits. This translates into approximately 280,000 visits to City Market where customers remembered their reusable bags. On Friday, April 25, when we add 5,000 more bags to that equation, and if customers use them just twice a week, we’re potentially diverting an additional 520,000 bags from the landfill! This could be just the beginning. When you consider that we have over 1,500,000 customer transactions a year, we have a long way to go. With your help I know that together we can continue to improve how we treat the planet, with reusable bags and in so many other ways. See you on the 25th!