The Giant Co. pursuing sustainability in produce and beyond
Kristin Skovira, Chris Keetch talk sustainability at The Giant Co.
Carlisle, Pa.-based The Giant Co. recently had four more stores reach the zero waste standard, and the company continues to push ahead on sustainability, including in its produce operations.
Kristin Skovira, who leads health and sustainability initiatives for the banner, said Giant aspires to have all its stores diverting 90% of their waste by 2025. The company also has goals around planting trees, protecting bees, eliminating hunger and more.
“How it applies in the produce department is really how we’ve changed our mindset in how we go to business,” said Chris Keetch, director of produce and floral. “So when we are looking at our (supplier) relationships, we check the box on food safety, we check the box on supply capabilities, so on and so forth down the list, and over the past couple years we’ve really started talking a lot about sustainability, trying to learn more about what our vendor partners are bringing forth and working on on their end of the spectrum, and how we can latch onto that, grow on it, and also maybe even push the envelope a little bit and try and move those conversations and those activities on a lot faster.”
Plastic packaging is one of the main topics of conversation when it comes to produce, with retailers around the country working to figure out how to give shoppers the shelf life, quality and prices to which they're accustomed while using materials other than plastic. The demand for convenience isn’t going away.
“The pandemic notwithstanding, customers have told us loud and clear that they’re not ready to move completely away from produce wrapped in plastic, typically bagged apples, bagged citrus, that sort of thing, but we’re pushing the envelope like I mentioned before and trying to go down that path and investigate materials that aren’t so harmful to the environment, which I think that everybody will recognize and admit that plastics certainly don’t biodegrade as fast as we’d like them to,” Keetch said.
In addition to talking with produce suppliers about different packaging options, Giant is looking at the materials used for the products it makes in-house, from tray-pack corn to fresh-cut fruits and vegetables. The retailer is exploring alternatives to foam trays and plastic containers.
“Oftentimes it’ll cost a little bit more, but if you look at the long-term benefit and we get enough of the retail landscape thinking the same way, the economies of scale will take over and we’ll be looking at recyclable containers and trays in the same light that we look at plastic today (in terms of affordability),” Keetch said.
In produce, for stores to meet the zero waste standard, going through a step-by-step process for diverting excess product is key. If a product can’t be sold as is, Giant evaluates whether it can be used on a salad bar or in the fresh-cut program or if it can be marked down or donated; the landfill is the last resort.
Skovira noted that, in stores that have achieved the zero waste standard, education and support on how to handle different types of materials is an important component.
“What we found at (the first store to reach zero waste) and then in our four new stores that we just recently announced that have reached that 90% metric is it’s really a culture throughout all the team members in the store,” Skovira said. “So it’s not just ‘Oh, our store manager really cares about this’ or ‘Oh, our assistant store managers really care.’ They do care, and it is being driven by them, but they are driving that culture from top to bottom.
“So if you ask the store manager, if you ask an ASM, a department lead, (whether an employee is) full-time or they’re part-time associates, they all know exactly what should be done with all the different waste and recycling materials in the store, and they’re all executing on that every day,” Skovira said. “It really takes every team member in our store to be able to reach that 90%.”
