Meeting Needs, Present and Future

Grocers and food providers undertake sustainability measures to benefit the planet

By Robin Brunet

Sustainability is arguably the most used buzzword in food retail circles, and while it is commonly interpreted to mean anything that is green-friendly, food manufacturers and grocers in 2023 abide more than ever by its original definition, as outlined in the 1987 United Nations Brundtland Commission report: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

In short, sustainability considers ecological, social, and economic aspects in order to achieve lasting prosperity – which in turn requires innovation to make happen.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the grocery sector, with Pattison Food Group (PFG) being a case in point. PFG includes PriceSmart Foods, Urban Fare, Bulkley Valley Wholesale, Everything Wine, Pure Integrative Pharmacy, Nature’s Fare Markets, Meinhardt Fine Foods, Nesters Market, Choices Markets, Associated Grocers, Van-Whole Produce, Imperial Distributors Canada Inc. and Save-On Foods. Together, these companies have spent over 30 years making a substantial difference in minimizing waste, promoting healthy lifestyles, and reducing their environmental footprint in all aspects of their operations. 

Julie Dickson, managing director, corporate responsibility and public affairs at PFG, says, “Our work to limit our social and environmental impacts started early on in the company’s history. From being one of the earliest grocers to offer bulk foods, to prioritizing relationships with our local growers and producers, our track record on social and environmental sustainability is expansive.”

One of PFG’s great strength is viewing its companies as partners, open to testing and piloting better solutions that work for business, customers and the planet. As such, the Group’s overall goal is to be a zero waste company “and we work actively on a number of fronts to work toward this target, with a commitment to demonstrating continuous improvement year over year,” Dickson says.

Currently, some of PFG’s major priorities include food waste diversion, plastic recycling and upcycling, creating circular economy networks to valorize ‘waste materials,’ and supporting customers with information and resources that help them improve their health and wellness. The food waste diversion program is currently diverting approximately 90 percent of food waste generated at all stores. Between 2016 and present the program has provided over 35 million meals, supported over 1,200 charities, and provided feedstock for nearly 2000 family farms. “This diversion of organic matter from landfills has also helped reduce our emissions in that span by 15,700 tonnes,” Dickson says.

Such dedication benefits each store under PFG. For example, even as Save-On-Foods added 28 new stores since 2016, its emissions dropped by 22 percent thanks to the diversion of quality surplus food to feed people instead of landfill. “Our recycling programs have also been very effective, and we continue to recycle more than 90 percent of plastic films and cardboard that come through our stores,” Dickson says, adding that “We are also exploring opportunities to upcycle our plastic waste streams, specifically our soft plastics and styrofoam.”

Dickson concludes, “We have ongoing dialogue with our customers and community leaders and we understand how important it is for our banners to continuously innovate for improvement. Doing the right thing is always good for business. We are proud of our work to date, and we know we are not done as we look to find practical solutions to concerns we all share.” 

On that score, the future success of maintaining sustainable standards in the grocery sector overall hinges on equipment and food manufacturers who are equally committed to meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs – or the environment. Here are just a few of many companies whose efforts are noteworthy.

HUSSMANN: Cool Solutions

Hussmann is renowned as a world leader in merchandising and refrigeration solutions, helping grocery stores and supermarkets attract shoppers, reduce shrink and enhance food safety. The company is constantly evolving to serve grocers, and this is especially true on the environmental front.

Ron Grabowski, senior product leader at Hussmann, says, “One aspect of sustainability for us is developing more CO₂ and propane air and water-cooled systems using less man made and more natural refrigerant options.”

As an example, late last year Krack, a Hussmann brand, launched its microDS Monoblock, a propane-based, self-contained refrigeration unit for walk-in cold rooms and freezers. The top-mounted, water-cooled unit combines the evaporator with the condensing unit into a single packaged pre-charged system, which attaches to a water-loop system that removes excess heat from the unit and transports it to a rooftop condenser where the heat dissipates.

In April, Hussmann is releasing an air-cooled version of its microSC Monoblock that will require no field refrigerant piping. Not only does this reduce installation time, but it also significantly reduces the use of HFCs leveraging propane as the refrigerant.

The water-cooled microDS Monoblock is generally better suited for larger retail stores due to many leveraging water loop systems; smaller stores will tend to use the microSC air-cooled equipment.

Grabowski notes, “We’ve showcased this technology at several trade shows and the response has been very positive, especially in light of the Environmental Protection Agency proposing bumping up the implementation of new stricter refrigerant emissions standards from 2026 to 2025 in its recent technology transition rule but with little guidance on how these standards can be achieved.”

Making the Monoblock technology available to the grocery sector hasn’t been easy. “It took years of development, and we’re still working on more options and looking to increase the capacity of these systems as the government approves higher propane charges in the future,” Grabowski says. As it stands, multiple units can be added to any area to increase cooling efficiency.

Grabowski goes on to point out that in general, Hussmann continuously looks at ways to improve designs and take refrigerant charge out of the system. An example is the recent launch of its low refrigerant charge indoor and outdoor distributed systems [Protocol SPI and SPO], designed for close proximity to walk-in coolers, freezers, and cases.” The SPI and SPO are both available with water-cooled applications where a fluid cooler is available (sold separately). The indoor SPI is also available for air-cooled when a Krack air-cooled remote condenser is available (sold separately).

Grabowski says of the SPI-SPO solutions, “This is a fairly straightforward and lower cost solution that requires less refrigerant and optimized piping to reduce the potential for leaks. It’s important to remember that many refrigeration systems in the grocery sector have been operating for sometimes up to 50 years, and while this speaks well of the resiliency of commercial equipment it also demonstrates that any upgrades are effective and much needed.”

KRAFT HEINZ: Towards Carbon Neutrality

For Kraft Heinz, sustainability is about looking to the future when it comes to how it operates, whether that is through protecting the environment, supporting communities, or sourcing responsibly – all in the name of helping foster a healthy and equitable future for everyone.

Kraft Heinz began publishing Environmental Social Governance (ESG) Reports in 2018, but both Kraft and Heinz’s history of practicing ethical and socially responsible business goes back a lot further than that. As the company has transformed, so has its sustainability practices. The Kraft Heinz ESG strategy is designed to prioritize the issues that matter most to the company’s business and stakeholders and focuses on driving progress across three key pillars: Healthy Living & Community Support, Environmental Stewardship, and Responsible Sourcing.

When asked what has been Kraft Heinz’s most important sustainability initiative to date, Nicole Fischer, the company’s head of NAZ ESG growth, replies, “It’s hard to rank our sustainability initiatives in order of importance, because how can you compare something like climate action to meals provided to people in need? They are both critical, and intricately related.

“I think we have made a significant difference in the lives of Canadians, though. For example, since 2020 with Food Banks Canada we’ve donated over three million meals of high-quality food to communities who face food insecurity. On our environmental impact, we’re reducing our water use, energy use, and food waste. Over the past five years we’ve reduced food waste by 21 percent in Canada, which means an average of 600 tons of food per year were diverted from landfill. As a food company it’s our duty to make sure our food makes it to the table. We can’t let it go to waste.”

As with other Kraft Heinz initiatives, sustainability efforts are driven by shoppers’ concerns. “The latest data from Nielsen tells us that 91 percent of Canadian shoppers say sustainability is important to them when shopping,” Fischer says. “And in the past few years Canadians have been incredibly vocal about climate change and social justice. It’s a matter of safety and security for their futures, especially the younger generations.”

Kraft Heinz has been especially busy in 2023. In January it launched the Tassimo Free Envelope Recycling Program with TerraCycle; shoppers can take advantage of this program by shipping their Tassimo T-pods (of any brand) with a free shipping label to TerraCycle, who will recycle these otherwise difficult-to-recycle pods. “This is our third recycling program with TerraCycle, and it resembles our Ethical Bean Recycling Program, which in the past year has helped Canadians recycled 73,000 coffee bags,” Fischer says.

Finally, Fischer points out that, “A critical focus of ours is getting to carbon neutrality by 2050, and along the way that means a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. We’re evaluating how we source, produce, and distribute our products from the ground up to minimize our carbon footprint however we can. We’re investigating additional renewable energy sources, electric vehicles, energy efficient systems, and more. We’re working diligently on these plans and are encouraged by the progress we’ve already made.”

THRIVE PROVISIONS: Grassroots Sustainability

Mention sustainability as a proposition to someone like Jeff Ball, and the likely response will be an ironic smile. That’s because Ball was born and raised as a fourth generation farmer, “And right from the beginning it was drilled into us that if you take care of the land and livestock, they’ll take care of you,” he says. “It’s really a time honoured concept that used to be at the heart of traditional farming.”

Ball brings this value in his role as chief executive officer and founder of Thrive Provisions of Brant, Alberta, where his family farms 6,000 acres in addition to grassland. “Starting in 1940, each generation of Ball farmers brought something special to our business,” Ball says. “For example, we adopted no-till farming when nobody knew what that was. The point is all of us were innovators, and arguably the biggest contribution I’ve made is intensifying our operations and emphasizing quality over quantity.”

That’s an understatement. In 1993 at the age of 23, Ball launched a Wagyu beef program for restaurants, Wagyu cattle farming having appeared in Canada after 1991 when the Canadian Wagyu Association was formed. “But even though that was a new aspect of our business, we still adhered to the same old values,” Ball says. Indeed, the family farm makes animal welfare its top priority, with pens constantly being cleaned and other measures taken to maximize cattle comfort. “We’re also scrupulous about crop rotation, which is vital to the health of monocrops,” Ball says. “Plus, our grazing livestock allows us to largely eliminate fertilizers because we work with an agrologist who guides us as to when and where to spread the cow manure on our property.”

Today, Thrive provides a wide variety of meat bars for retail clients such as Sobeys, Safeway, and Amazon. “I decided to delve into the snack food realm because, as an athlete who was constantly in training when not farming, I thought the so-called healthy eating options available at retail left a lot to be desired,” Ball says.

After a lengthy development process and help from the Agrivalue Processing Business Incubator in Leduc, Ball in March of 2020 launched his meat snacks, proudly stating that they are nut free, soy free, grain free, gluten friendly, keto friendly, non-GMO, and dairy free.

Despite launching in the midst of the Covid lockdowns, consumer reaction was almost instantaneous. “Sales have been incredible, and our brand recognition has grown tremendously in a short space of time,” Ball says. And while he admits it takes considerable self-control not to expand his operations by leaps and bounds, the effort is worth it: “Adhering to quality has never steered me wrong. And no matter how popular our snacks become, I’ll never sell out: control of the product means too much to me.”

That may be his intention moving forward, but Ball will hardly continue his sustainable farming efforts alone. “I already have the fifth generation of Balls working the land and am waiting for the sixth generation to come into their own,” he says. “I’ve had a fortunate business trajectory in that consumers are longing, via their food, to have a connection to the land and the producer. Thrive Provisions really fits the bill.”

MUTTI: Stewardship, Italian Style

For more than a century, Parma, Italy-based Mutti has brought only the finest tomatoes to tables across the globe thanks to a tradition of taste and constant innovation that includes an innate interest in pursuing sustainable practises.

Thanks to CEO Francesco Mutti helping to develop a simple but brilliant concept called the ‘law of freshness’, all the fields where the company’s tomatoes are grown are close to Mutti’s plants, to avoid unnecessary traveling and to minimize any impact on the tomatoes’ freshness, taste and integrity. Moreover, when tomatoes arrive at the factory they are handled within 12 hours with the least invasive processes.

Traceability is taken very seriously at Mutti. Since 2016, the company’s entire supply chain has been certified in accordance with international standard ISO 22005, guaranteeing that the origin of its tomatoes is 100 percent Italian.

The concept of excellence that Mutti upholds not only covers the processing of tomatoes and the supply chain, but environmental sustainability as well.

Thanks to a well-established partnership with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Italy and the monitoring of its water footprint by the Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climatic Change (CMCC), Mutti was the first company in Italy and one of the few worldwide to calculate its water consumption from production processes, in an attempt to reduce its water footprint. The analysis began in 2010 with an examination of the entire production chain and took into account all production lines in the plants, from the harvesting of raw materials to product processing and to the packaging process, in order to calculate the amount of ‘hidden’ water stored in every Mutti product (considering that 85 percent of humanity’s water footprint is linked to agri-food production, 10 percent to industrial production, and 5 percent to domestic use, this undertaking was particularly important).

As a result, Mutti developed an innovative system of irrigation management involving over 60 supplier farms in the Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy regions; this led to the reduction of the company’s water footprint by 4.6 percent.

Also, thanks to efficiency improvement measures and the use of renewable energy sources, between 2010 and 2015 Mutti prevented the emission of 20,000 tonnes of CO2 into the air. Between 2018 and 2020, use of solar panels at the Montechiarugolo and Collecchio plants avoided releasing around 1,500 tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; Mutti’s solar panels have since been upgraded and improved.

That’s not all. In 2021, 92 percent of Mutti’s hazardous and non-hazardous waste (excluding sewage sludge) was recovered or recycled. That same year, 38 percent of the of by-products resulting from Mutti’s production process was destined for the creation of biogas; the remaining 62 percent was turned into animal feed.

Finally, Mutti is collaborating with regional municipalities on the ecological redevelopment of various territories owned by the company, in the hopes that their efforts will be able to be replicated by other organizations in the future.

Of course, Mutti can’t do all this by himself. Mutti believes that working with the most talented and skilled farmers is the best way to guarantee high-quality standards in his tomatoes. The company knows its 800 farmers personally because they work together for generations, developing a long-term partnership based on mutual respect.

Mutti shares with the farmers the value: respect for nature and its times and ethical principles towards people.

One essential requirement is the contract between Mutti and the farmers including the adoption of 100% mechanical harvesting, creating a more efficient and safer method of working.

Mutti pays a higher price for the quality of tomatoes, +10% above the market average in the last decade. The farmers can reinvest in their own farms by further improving the quality of standard of the tomato. This creates a successful virtuous circle for everyone: Mutti, farmers, and consumers.

Moreover every year Mutti awards farmers who deliver the best tomato quality with “Pomodorino d’Oro” prize. This prize is awarded at the end of the summer, after the end of harvesting, to all those farmers who have delivered the reddest, juiciest, and sweetest tomatoes. About 60 are awarded throughout Italy, all receive a cash prize but the first ones receive a real golden tomato.

DANONE: One Planet One Health

It makes sense that a company dedicated to health through food would be equally committed to sustainable operations, and as Danone Canada president and CEO Dan Magliocco recently stated in a report outlining his company’s social and environmental commitments, Danone believes “that the health of people and planet are connected and interdependent.”

That belief translates into a variety of initiatives. Danone is the largest consumer-facing B-Corp certified company in the country, which is a testament to its commitment to the highest standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. “We see ourselves as a company that is pushing the boundaries and making things happen because we care about our employees, about the communities we live in, and about making a positive impact where we operate,” says Pascal Lachance, director of sustainability at Danone Canada. “Our One Planet One Health vision is both a rallying cry and an invitation for others to join in bringing greater health through food.”

Danone Canada’s sustainability journey is built around the three pillars of health, planet and community. Within these foundational pillars the company is deeply invested in contributing to advancing packaging recyclability, offering healthy and tasty products to Canadians, and improving food security as some key areas of focus.

In addition to brands such as Activia, Oikos, Silk, Danone and Evian to name a few, Danone continues to develop new products along sustainable values. “Our newly launched yogurt brand in Canada, Two Good, is a fine representation of the effort of our teams,” Lachance says. “Launched last year, this new product fights alongside Second Harvest to combat food waste. We are very proud to offer a product that is both good for our health and fights for a meaningful project for our society.”

Lachance goes on to note, “We are also deeply committed to fighting food insecurity in Canada alongside our 27-year partner Breakfast Club of Canada. This is more relevant than ever, and we are proud to be opening school food programs across the country including in remote communities.” Lachance is referring to Danone Canada’s commitment to donate $1.2 million over five years to support the opening of breakfast programs in communities where the need is the greatest.

Lachance echoes the sentiments of many sustainably minded food providers when he says, “We can vote for the world we want to live in, and that starts with what we choose to put on our shelves. We are continuously innovating, and we have launched several award-winning products such as Nextmilk by Silk in the last year – showing the power of being in tune with customers’ needs and with developing products that are good for the planet.

In 2023, look out for even more brand activations. We also have some exciting news to come on waste reduction!”

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