PLEASANTON, Calif. — In the fifth edition of the Greenpeace retailer scorecard, which ranks the Top 20 grocery retailers on the sustainability of their seafood practices, Safeway Inc. (NYSE:SWY) was ranked number one, making it the most sustainable national grocery retailer in the U.S. for seafood.
The “Carting Away the Oceans” report and scorecard, released on April 11, rates retailers’ existing seafood policies, initiatives, product labeling/dissemination of information about products, and practices surrounding the sale of certain unsustainable or “red list” species.
“This ranking reflects our commitment and responsibility to be a steward of our natural resources,” said Phil Gibson, Group Director of Seafood at Safeway. “We strive to be a leader in the area of seafood sustainability and know that much remains to be done. We hope that the entire industry continues on this important path to ensuring that both the world’s oceans and the seafood industry thrive.”
A key component of its high score is the public communication of Safeway’s policies and goals surrounding seafood sustainability. By 2015, all Safeway fresh and frozen seafood will come from sustainable and traceable sources, or be in a credible improvement project to meet the goal. To achieve these objectives, Safeway has partnered with FishWise, a Santa Cruz, CA based nonprofit that works with companies throughout the seafood supply chain to support environmentally responsible business practices. In Canada, the company is now working with SeaChoice, Canada’s national program for sustainable seafood developed by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the David Suzuki Foundation, Ecology Action Center, Living Oceans Society and Sierra Club British Columbia.
Safeway has a Sustainable Seafood Task Force, which assesses the company’s entire supply chain, and established priorities for vendors and its own operations. With assistance from FishWise, Safeway met with all of its suppliers to convey its commitment to sustainability, shared recommendations to improve production practices, and explored ways to establish traceability for all products.
To raise customer awareness, Safeway deployed to all of its stores a comprehensive brochure that outlines its commitment, plans, and actions to date, and is rolling out a staff training program for seafood counter employees that was developed with FishWise. Combined with improved signage and merchandising, Safeway customers are better able to make more sustainable choices.
Safeway is making corporate social responsibility part of the fabric of the company and a strategy to deliver a competitive advantage. Among the many accomplishments, Safeway:
•Implemented a reuse and recycling program that allows the company to divert an estimated 490,000 tons of material from landfills last year alone.
•Ranked 8th on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership program for retailers for purchasing 93 million kilowatt hours of wind energy in 2010 to offset power used by the company’s retail fuel stations, corporate headquarters and all stores in San Francisco, CA and Boulder, CO.
•In 2010, completed the company’s 19th store that utilizes solar power.
•Became a founding member of The Sustainability Consortium, an independent organization of diverse global participants that develops tools and strategies for improving product sustainability.
•Named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America for the second consecutive year
•Named to the Calvert Social Index
•Built five stores to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) specifications for sustainable design, construction and operating practices.
ABOUT SAFEWAY www.Safeway.com
Safeway Inc. is a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America, based on sales. The company operates 1,694 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $41.1 billion in 2010. The company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY.
ABOUT FISHWISE, www.fishwise.org
FishWise, a non-profit organization based in Santa Cruz, CA. Uniquely positioned within the seafood industry and marine conservation organizations, FishWise offers a range of services that create trust between seafood vendors and their customers, enabling businesses to sell more sustainable seafood, more profitably. For more information go to: www.fishwise.org
Source: Safeway