Everyday practices conserve natural resources, reduce carbon footprint
The tradition of employing cost saving measures in order to pass along the savings to each customer, has been a common practice of ours since 1938. From the beginning, our green initiatives have included recycling, reusing and reclaiming, and these practices continue to grow as we expands across the Midwest.
On Earth Day, and every day, shoppers are encouraged to recycle their plastic grocery bags in-store. Simply look for the marked bin, and drop-off used plastic sacks. These bags are recycled and provide for built-with-bags infrastructure, including benches, picnic tables and similar items for parks and schools.
Utilizing recyclable bags during the shopping experience is just one more way to pay dividends. Customers can bring in their recyclable bags to the store and receive five cents for every bag during an individual shopping trip.
“We are proud of our commitment and green practices here at Fareway,” said Fareway President and Chief Operating Officer Frederick R. Greiner. “Not only does this preserve our precious natural resources, these initiatives also provide value to our customers every day."
Since 1955, we have captured heat from in-store refrigeration compressors, reclaiming it to heat the building. This initiative has helped reduce each store’s carbon footprint and was so successful; it led to development of other methods. Our current green initiatives include coordinating backhauls to save fuel, reusing cardboard boxes and recycling efforts that realize annual benchmarks of:
- 5,000 gallons of waste oil
- 850,000 pallets
- 400 tons of plastic shrink
- 12,500 tons of cardboard
- 4,500,000 plastic grocery sacks
Materials are collected at our recycling facility for initial processing and then shipped to major recyclers for final recycling.
Our initiatives have been recognized by energy partners, such as MidAmerican Energy and Alliant Energy. Accolades have been received from both companies for our commitment to daily energy efficiency and projects.
