Green Retail Decisions recognizes Hannaford Supermarket’s savings with Manomet’s Grocery Stewardship Certification program. This certification helped Hannaford Supermarkets save more than $23 million in 2015. The Manomet Grocery Stewardship Certification (GSC) program provides resources for food retailers to optimize operational sustainability, including practices to increase energy efficiency and reduce waste. Hannaford Supermarkets used the GSC program to track its sustainability progress, and recorded a savings of about $125,000 per store.

Hannaford Supermarkets acknowledges the GSC program as a useful tool to help minimize the stores’ environmental impact, including tools to quantify savings in energy, waste reduction, and greenhouse gas emissions. For example, Hannaford Supermarkets annually divert 78,000 tons of waste from landfills.

Hannaford Supermarkets’ waste diversion efforts include both a partnership with Feeding America to donate surplus food and sending food that cannot be donated to an anaerobic digestion facility. The facility that accepts Hannaford’s wasted food includes a depackager that is able to separate food from its packaging so that it can be fed into the anaerobic digester to create energy. There are now several facilities in and near Massachusetts that accept packaged food for depackaging.

Hannaford presented at a WasteWise forum last fall about their comprehensive efforts to divert wasted materials from disposal. Wastewise, a program sponsored by the US EPA helps private and public organizations reduce waste. The Fall 2016 WasteWise Forum will be held on December 1 at Raytheon in Tewksbury.

RecyclingWorks in Massachusetts assists businesses and institutions with recycling and food waste reduction through composting and food donation. To speak to a recycling expert, call our hotline: (888) 254-5525 or email us at info@recyclingworksma.com.