Sustainability

What is Operational Sustainability Anyway?

FMI recently hosted a discussion featuring the Ratio Institute, a nonprofit focused on achieving sustainable food retailing through expert collaboration, industry resources and practical tools. The discuss was designed to provide members of our ...

Food Scraps - The Ultimate (Re)Gifts?

Last year, I put a kitchen compost bin on my wish list for the holidays. I was surprised and elated to unwrap it on Christmas morning and have used it every day since. Returning inedible food scraps back to Mother Earth throughout the year has been ...

Equal Opportunity Through Supplier Diversity

E pluribus unum, meaning “Out of many, one.” This iconic Latin motto speaks to the heart of the American ethos. Put another way, one could interpret the phrase as “We’re all in this together,” which is not only an apt description of democracy, but ...

Seizing the ROI of Social Responsibility

Give and you shall receive. This age-old adage is not only fitting for this charitable time of year, but it also provides concise guidance for food retailers looking to maximize customer loyalty and satisfaction. Now more than ever, consumers want ...

Celebrating Sustainability and Trucking the Smart Way

FMI is a proud affiliate of the EPA SmartWay program, a collaboration with freight carriers, shippers and logistics providers to accelerate the adoption of advanced fuel-saving technologies and strategies. We wanted to share highlights from a recent ...

Can We Get to Zero Food Waste?

Last night at dinner, a family friend asked if it was true that around one-third of the food in this country is wasted. It was sobering to say yes. Estimates vary, but approximately 25-40% of food grown, processed and transported in the U.S. will ...

An Update on Our Work Towards Sustainable Packaging in the Food Supply Chain

The U.S. Plastics Pact Roadmap, released today, was created by this collaborative, solutions-driven consortium to enable participants to collectively reach ambitious goals by 2025 that couldn’t otherwise be met on their ...

Solar Energy Has Bright Outlook in Food Retail

As more companies have looked to reduce their electricity consumption and carbon footprints in recent years, exploring renewable energy has become a logical next step. Leading chains such as Kroger, Publix, Aldi, H-E-B, Giant Eagle, Stop & Shop, ...

The Next Hot Topic: Social Justice and Food

The whole world is anticipating, yearning, and preparing for the day when the COVID-19 pandemic does not dominate the horizon of our life considerations. From a food industry perspective, part of that involves speculating which pandemic-tinged ...

Sustainability in the Food Industry

It’s Earth Week—a time of year filled with climate announcements, ribbon-cuttings for facilities powered by cleaner energy and photos of community tree-planting events. It’s also a time for FMI to focus on just a few of the exciting sustainability ...

Get To Know the Sustainable Seafood Shopper

Today’s shoppers have stocked pantries, full freezers and overused cookbooks due to the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a time where grocery shopping habits have changed for so many, one would expect seafood sustainability to drop ...

Speaking from the Heart on Valentine’s Day

I am seizing this opportunity to issue this blog as my heartfelt Valentine’s Day card to the food industry, the community I have always admired and respected, but have come to appreciate and dare I say, love, in some new and more profound ways over ...

Cold Storage is Crucial in Ecommerce Fulfillment

As retailers across the country experiment to find the best strategies to assemble and prepare online orders as quickly and efficiently as possible, cold chain management is emerging as a crucial consideration, especially as it relates to food ...

Finding Solutions for Plastics and Packaging Waste Challenges

I joke that my entryway has turned into ‘Marjorie’s MRF’ because I have so many piles of material to find a new home for. There are extra paper bags to reuse or recycle, extra plastic bags to return to the stores with collection bins, cooler bags to ...

Celebrating Supermarket Employee Day

On February 22, 2021, I will be celebrating the hard-working heroes of the supermarket by joining with the industry to proclaim it Supermarket Employee Day. The supermarket has long been acknowledged as the backbone of our communities, but its role ...