Grand Rapids, Michigan-based SpartanNash has released its 2021 environmental, social and governance report. The report supports SpartanNash’s efforts to drive transparency and company excellence, while highlighting priorities and successes tied to ESG milestones and metrics.
“The release of our first-ever ESG report is just the beginning of the transformational journey happening at SpartanNash, and it serves as a reminder that we can only achieve business success when we protect and enhance the interests of our stakeholders,” said Tony Sarsam, SpartanNash president and CEO.
“Our board of directors, executive leadership team and employees have made a long-term commitment to promoting and integrating ESG into how we achieve our mission. We are proud of where we are today but recognize that progress is a journey, and we will dig deeper to set new benchmarks this year while continuing to hold ourselves accountable to ensure transparency and deliver a reliable, sustainable and resilient future for our stakeholders.”
This report signals a new dedication to sharing the company’s ESG progress annually with the public and its key stakeholders, including its 17,500 employees.
SpartanNash’s ESG focus areas and corporate strategy align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, a shared framework to “improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.”
The report details its ESG strategy, highlighting SpartanNash’s core capabilities:
- People: SpartanNash prioritizes engaging, developing and rewarding employees to ensure a diverse and inclusive workforce.
- Operational excellence: This portion of the report covers optimizations to reduce the company’s energy usage and carbon footprint, to focus on efficiency, applied use of technology and its partnerships to reduce waste.
- Insights that drive solutions: This section of the report covers initiatives that focus on healthy, convenient and local options, transparent nutritional information and related education to support healthy lifestyles of consumers and patients.
SpartanNash’s inaugural ESG report was developed under the guidance and oversight of dozens of senior leaders from every corner of the business, in addition to members of the executive leadership team and board of directors. Together, this team will be monitoring progress and providing oversight for the coming years.
The full report, available here, goes into depth on initiatives and results. Highlights from the 2021 report include:
- Good health and well-being: Administered 140,000-plus vaccinations against COVID-19 through company pharmacies and invested in safety experts and programming that resulted in a 48 percent improvement in the employee recordable injury rate.
- Economic growth: Increased pay by an average of over 10 percent for all entry-level roles in retail and supply chain areas, representing over 90 percent of SpartanNash employees, and expanded the company bonus program to include more employees, representing a $2.4 million investment in target bonuses in 2021 and a 57 percent increase in participants.
- Reduced inequalities: Evolved the talent review and succession planning process to include creation of talent pools for key roles, with a focus on increased representation of women and BIPOC in leadership.
- Zero hunger: Donated the equivalent of more than five million meals to local non-profit organizations throughout the company’s footprint.
- Responsible consumption and production: Partnered with Flashfood to discount food nearing its best-before date to eliminate 146,000 pounds of potential food waste.
- Climate action: Developed a plan to reduce fleet mileage by 10 percent in 2022, which in turn would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10,000 metric tons.
In addition to its annual ESG report, the company will be providing ongoing updates on major initiatives throughout the year, including the commitment to eliminate 10 percent of fleet mileage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 10,000 metric tons in 2022.
For more information, visit spartannash.com.
