Greening Our Business

added 12/22/09

We launched our Sustainability Team in late 2007 as a means of engaging staff from all parts of the Co-op in our journey to environmental sustainability.

Teamwork Makes the Difference

Greening Our Business
by Emily Neuman
Sustainability Coordinator

In November, the Hanover Area Chamber of Commerce invited the Co-op to speak at an education program titled, “The Business Case for Sustainability.” “Share some numbers if you can,” the program coordinator requested.

Smiling, I turned to my Sustainability Team file: figures from 21 different departments in our Co-op, all demonstrating our commitment to environmental sustainability from the bottom up and the inside out; figures such as 3,100 trash bags and $1,600 saved in 2009 by paying closer attention to how we collect our trash in the “Hanover store“about/hanover-store.

It’s numbers like these that tell me our sustainability program at the Co-op is working and that our staff team is an essential component of our success.

We launched our team in late 2007 as a means of engaging staff from all parts of the Co-op in our journey to environmental sustainability. We are 29 members strong, with a representative from each department. Through trial and error, we’ve found that we do best when we work individually to effect change in our departments. But in all that we do, we’re pulling toward common goals from the Co-op’s strategic plan for environmental sustainability. Our team provides the structure and encouragement we all need in order to make continuous progress.

To mobilize ourselves for 2009, we kicked the year off with an open house. Snacks and drinks in hand, we mingled among displays about our four strategic goals for sustainability and took time to reflect on the Co-op’s progress in 2008. Before leaving, each team member wrote a New Year’s resolution for his or her department.

We later fashioned those resolutions into measurable goals. I met with team members throughout the year to check on their progress and, if needed, help them clear hurdles.

In October, we gathered to celebrate. Twenty-one team members had made good on their resolutions. Most were successful; some were not. But the fact that all of us were proactive is what gives our team the spirit we need to take on new challenges in 2010.

Here is some of what was accomplished in 2009:

  • The Hanover Produce department saved more than 80 heads of lettuce per week by changing their lettuce display.
  • Inventory Control saved approximately 4,500 sheets of paper by not printing electronic data.
  • The Receiving departments recycled more than 2,750 gallons of saved packing peanuts to local small business owners for shipping their products.
  • The Lebanon Meat department saved at least 3,000 trash bags by going liner-free in their cutting room.
  • The Dairy departments directed more than 8,000 pounds of out-dated product to a pig farmer rather than the landfill or sewer system.
  • Shoppers helped the cashiers give out fewer than one million disposable shopping bags in 2009 (down from 2.15 million in 2006). A big factor: Hanover High students all but stopped taking shopping bags, for a fall semester savings of about 12,000 bags.

You can help make our Co-op a little Greener in 2010. Here are some ideas:

Coming in the March issue of the Co-op News: the Co-op Strategic Goals for Environmental Sustainability

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