2026 Sustainability Award Winners

Acosta Group's sustainability strategy is built on the belief that investing in people creates lasting value for businesses, communities and the future workforce. With more than 56,000 associates across North America and Europe, the company supports growth through leadership development, continuous learning, career mobility, well-being and community engagement.

Over the past year, Acosta Group expanded workforce development by launching four new enterprise programs, bringing its portfolio to 11 programs and reaching 6,576 participants. The company also created 266 training assets supporting 17 major transformation initiatives, helping associates build new skills and adapt to change.

Developing future-ready leaders remains a key focus. Acosta Group successfully piloted its Leadership Rotation Program, an eight-month cross-functional experience designed to strengthen collaboration and leadership readiness. The company also expanded its internship program by 700 percent, growing from four interns to 32. More than 3,000 applicants competed for 10 positions in its Leadership Development Program, making it one of the industry's most competitive early-career opportunities. Acosta Group further supports career growth through its "Talent Without Boundaries" philosophy, encouraging mobility across business units and geographies. Programs such as Executive Excellence, Leadership Acceleration, Manager Essentials, mentorship and talent planning help associates build skills while strengthening the company's leadership pipeline.

The company's impact extends beyond the workplace. Its Military Division provides employment and development opportunities for veterans, military spouses and military families worldwide. Associates also support causes ranging from hunger relief to education and cancer research, including packing more than 4,000 Thanksgiving meals, harvesting 72,600 pounds of produce for people in need and helping raise $5.13 million through the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.

Acosta Group's people-first approach has drawn significant recognition, including Brandon Hall Excellence Awards, the Handshake Early Talent Award and a Gold Stevie Award for Great Employers recognizing excellence in talent and workforce development.

By investing in leadership, learning and community impact, Acosta Group is building a future-ready workforce that empowers associates, strengthens communities and supports the evolving needs of the food industry.

Ahold Delhaize USA is helping advance a more sustainable food system by tackling one of the industry's most complex challenges: Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions across agricultural supply chains.

Building on regenerative agriculture collaborations, ADUSA is working with Danone USA, The Nature Conservancy and Legacy Landscapes to support scalable solutions that strengthen farm and ranch resilience while reducing environmental impact.

With Danone USA and The Nature Conservancy, ADUSA is participating in a multi-year dairy pilot focused on enhanced farm and supply chain resilience and reducing methane emissions from the dairy supply for select Danone USA yogurt products sold through ADUSA brands and other major retailers.

The initiative supports participating dairy farmers with practices and technologies such as manure separation systems, compost turners and irrigation-efficiency solutions. TNC provides technical and strategic reviews, including support for estimating environmental benefits and helping ensure outcomes are allocated transparently.

ADUSA also joined Legacy Landscapes, a multi-partner grazing lands program with more than $16.9 million in public and private funding to help 135 cattle producers improve land-management practices by bringing retailers, food brands, ranchers and technical partners together to support more sustainable U.S. beef production.

The program provides financial support for practice implementation, rancher access to AgriWebb's ranch management software and free technical advisory services. More than 2.8 million acres of grazing land are enrolled, giving producers tools to move from paper records and spreadsheets to data-driven decisions that support efficient, resilient operations.

For ADUSA, supporting rancher success and resilient grasslands is tied to long-term supply security and broader efforts to reduce Scope 3 emissions across the supply chain.

Together, these efforts show how retailer, supplier, nonprofit and producer collaboration can move sustainability beyond goals and into practice. By funding, supporting and learning from programs that prioritize measurable practice change, ADUSA is helping build models that can strengthen land stewardship, improve resource efficiency and support more resilient food supply chains.

The work reflects ADUSA's commitment to healthier people and planet, while demonstrating how collaborative action can help drive meaningful progress across the food industry.

Newly appointed CEO Paul Schiefer has been with Amy's Kitchen for nearly 20 years, where he leads the senior leadership team and oversees key functions including sales, marketing, supply chain, sustainability, technology and employee engagement. Schiefer has played a central role in its growth and sustainability efforts, including international expansion and achieving B Corp certification.

Schiefer has embedded sustainability into the company's operational backbone – transforming mission into measurable impact across production, packaging, sourcing and waste reduction.

Under his leadership, Amy's diverts 88 percent of waste from landfill at its Santa Rosa, California, facility and has committed to halving food waste by 2030. In one year alone, the company diverted 427,000 pounds of food from landfill into the hands of people, while 75 percent of its packaging by weight is readily recyclable, with ongoing investments in compostable solutions.

Amy's also maintains a rigorous responsible sourcing program, purchasing $110 million in certified third-party ingredients and upholding strict supplier screening standards.

Schiefer's climate-forward strategy is equally bold. Amy's plant-based protein emits 77 percent less CO₂e than meat and uses 96 percent less land than beef, helping the company avoid 51,000 metric tons of CO₂e annually. That's equivalent to 23,000 cross-country car trips.

As a 100 percent vegetarian company and 90 percent organic brand, Amy's avoids more than 700 synthetic chemicals and supports farming practices that sequester 26 percent more carbon and foster 30 percent greater biodiversity than conventional systems.

Schiefer's leadership proves that sustainability is not an initiative; it is a business model. Aligning environmental innovation with operational excellence, he is advancing a forward-thinking, scalable blueprint for the future of food.

Brackens is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to restoring food and lives. It combats hunger, food waste and poverty through the three pillars of its mission: food rescue, community feeding and culinary training. Through collaboration with food banks, food suppliers and community partners it utilizes food that would otherwise be wasted and turned into healthy meals for the underserved in the community. Brackens Kitchen serves 8,000-plus meals per day to organizations, churches, schools, parents of ill children and many more needy individuals on a daily basis.

Bill Bracken was a well-known chef and manager for many years at many exclusive restaurants in the Los Angeles and Orange County area. During Covid-19, he felt the need to do more for others versus himself. He was given a food truck, which he named "Babs" and together they were the beginning of what has become today, a respected organization giving back to hundreds.

As time progressed, Bracken identified a need to also assist those to "help themselves." Together he and his wife, Molly, developed an accredited and certified training program to prepare students for the workforce. Many had no prior skills but a determination to learn.

Through classroom learning and hands-on training in a dedicated teaching kitchen, 20 students gain the essential knowledge needed to start a career path in the hospitality and food service industry.

Bracken's Kitchen Culinary Training Program is a 22-week, 100 percent free program dedicated to underserved youth and young adults (age 17 and older). In fact, students are paid during the second half of their training because they are contributing to the Community Feeding and Catering for a Cause programs through their work.

Linked with those programs, as well as the Rescued Food effort, Brackens Kitchen is building the framework to create a long-term, self-sustaining program that changes lives and encourages independence.

Professional chef instructors train students on foundational cooking methods while providing valuable life lessons, such as organization, personal discipline and accountability, problem solving and time management in a fast-paced work environment.

Graduating students will leave Bracken's Kitchen prepared to interview and enter the workforce, possessing the professionalism, confidence and knowledge to begin a career in hospitality.

BSF (formerly Beaver Street Fisheries), a 75-year-old, family-owned seafood importer and distributor in Jacksonville, Florida, has built sustainability into sourcing, operations and community outreach and has published third-party-informed sustainability reports since fiscal year 2023.

Certified sourcing: BSF holds Marine Stewardship Council supply chain certification and sources 23 MSC-certified species, including Atlantic cod, snow crab and sockeye salmon. Its Jacksonville plant became the world's first seafood repackaging facility certified under the Global Seafood Alliance's Best Aquaculture Practices program. An estimated 85 percent of BSF's food ingredients, by cost, carry MSC or BAP certification. BSF funds six active Fishery Improvement Projects, including a decade-long Indonesia snapper-grouper reform effort and a small-scale shrimp farm initiative in India with Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Waste and emissions: BSF's Styrofoam recycling program avoids about 70 tCO2e annually and has already paid back its equipment cost. BSF eliminated cellophane and shrink-wrap overwrapping to cut plastic use and has tracked Scope 1-3 emissions for three straight years.

Community impact: In fiscal year 2024, BSF donated 15,283 pounds of surplus food to the Endangered Animal Rescue Sanctuary and supported five additional Jacksonville organizations, building on 18,068 pounds donated in fiscal year 2023. BSF also runs student facility tours, seafood-nutrition education events and MLK Day service projects with Fresh Ministries, City Year and the Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation.

Human rights: BSF has partnered with the Issara Institute since 2015 to reduce forced-labor and trafficking risk in its supply chain, signed the Fair Labor Association's "No Worker Pays for Their Job" pledge in 2023 and publishes an annual anti-forced-labor report.

LithoURB is an innovative and distinctive offering in North America: 100 percent recycled brown paperboard developed to replace virgin-fiber substrates in premium lithographic packaging applications.

LithoURB delivers the print quality and converting performance required for high-end litho-laminated corrugated packaging (LithoURB is laminated directly on the medium) and folding carton while supporting a circular economy.

By expanding the use of recycled fiber into packaging applications traditionally served by virgin solid bleached sulfate (SBS), LithoURB helps brands reduce their environmental footprint without compromising aesthetics or functionality.

The project involved cross-functional collaboration among innovation, R&D, manufacturing, operations, sales, technical services and packaging experts to ensure technical feasibility, product consistency and operational efficiency.

Final products manufactured using the LithoURB paper can be FSC Mix-certified upon request, are prequalified recyclable by How2Recycle and are manufactured in a BRCGS-certified facility, ensuring compliance with recognized food safety standards.

An independent third-party life cycle assessment conducted in accordance with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards demonstrated that, compared with a comparable North American industry-average virgin linerboard, LithoURB generates 72 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions, reduces fossil fuel scarcity impacts by 64 percent and lowers land-use impacts by 99 percent. (Results are based on 2023 production data for one metric ton of liner and compared with the North American industry average for white and brown liners.)

Recyclable and compatible with existing recovery systems, LithoURB keeps valuable fibers in circulation while helping customers meet growing recycled content, circularity and ESG commitments. Its natural brown appearance is also a distinctive advantage for brands seeking to communicate sustainability at a glance while maintaining strong shelf impact and premium packaging aesthetics.

The innovation demonstrates how advanced recycled-fiber technology can unlock new, higher-value packaging applications and accelerate the transition toward more sustainable packaging solutions.

Chiquita is advancing sustainability in the banana industry through Yelloway, a joint venture dedicated to developing disease-resistant banana varieties using traditional plant breeding supported and accelerated by advanced technology. In partnership with KeyGene, Chiquita is investing in a long-term solution that strengthens climate resilience, reduces the environmental impact of banana production and helps secure the future of one of the world's most important food crops.

Yelloway addresses two of the banana industry's greatest sustainability challenges, Tropical Race 4 (TR4) and Black Sigatoka, diseases that cost the industry millions of dollars annually and threaten food security, grower livelihoods and global banana production.

By developing naturally disease-resistant banana varieties, the company aims to reduce reliance on carbon-intensive crop protection measures, lower greenhouse gas emissions associated with banana production and create a more resilient agricultural system for future generations.

Since its launch, Yelloway has achieved significant scientific milestones. Researchers have mapped the genetic diversity of more than 80 banana varieties and presented the world's most complete banana pan-genome in February 2026, completed more than 150 successful crosses including Yelloway One, the first cross with combined resistance to TR4 and Black Sigatoka, and produced more than 32,000 seeds to accelerate development of new banana varieties that deliver the taste, appearance and shelf life consumers expect while providing resistance to disease.

Earlier this year, Yelloway also completed the banana pan-genome, a comprehensive map of banana genetic diversity that enables more precise breeding decisions, accelerates development of disease- and climate-resilient varieties and strengthens long-term efforts to preserve biodiversity. The company has advanced to field testing, with Yelloway-developed banana plants undergoing trials in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Rather than treating disease management as an ongoing input challenge, Yelloway seeks to solve it at the source through sustainable plant breeding, creating long-term benefits for growers, consumers and the environment. As part of Chiquita's Behind the Blue Sticker sustainability strategy, Yelloway demonstrates the company's commitment to science-based innovation, collaboration and responsible agriculture by investing in solutions that can reduce environmental impacts.

ecoATM was founded to help reduce the amount of electronic waste (e-waste) entering landfills and extend the useful life of electronic devices.

Using advanced technology and automation, ecoATM's device recycling kiosks offer consumers an easy, secure and convenient way to sell their used cell phones and tablets in exchange for cash.

When a consumer sells their device to an ecoATM, they're giving it an opportunity for a new life through refurbishment and resale. Devices that cannot be refurbished are recycled responsibly according to industry standards.

Personal electronics contain toxic and hazardous materials. These include arsenic, lead and mercury, which are all very harmful to human and environmental health. The improper disposal of these electronics has negative consequences, which can pose a threat to the environment and the health of everyone.

The company hit a major milestone in 2026 – more than 57 million devices have been collected via kiosks since its founding. Here's what that looks like in terms of environmental impact:

• 57 million devices is the weight equivalent of 28 million pounds of e-waste;
• This has prevented thousands of toxic materials like arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury from leeching into land and water;
• This is the equivalent of removing 3 million metric tons of CO2 (carbon emissions);
• 57 million devices collected is the equivalent of saving 28 billion gallons of water.

ecoATM is committed to following its environmental, health and safety management system (EHSMS), which conforms to the ISO 45001 and ISO 14001:2015 standards. The company is equally committed to meeting or exceeding customer requirements to continually improve processes and to maintain compliance with relevant environmental, occupational, health, safety and data security laws and regulations.

ecoATM strives to minimize adverse impacts on the environment by managing used and end-of-life electronic equipment, components and materials – with respect to both on-site activities and the selection of downstream vendors – using a "reuse, recover, dispose" hierarchy of responsible management strategies.

ECOS is a leader in sustainable and regenerative manufacturing, making safer cleaning products sold at club and grocery retailers nationwide and around the world.

Family-owned and operated since 1967, ECOS has built sustainability into every part of how it operates, using a "Reduce-Reuse-Recycle-Rethink" methodology. It first dramatically reduces energy and water use, carbon emissions and waste, then offsets what remains through investments in clean energy projects and restoration programs for waterways and habitats.

ECOS achieved carbon neutrality in 2013, TRUE Platinum-level Zero Waste certification in 2015 and water neutrality in 2016.

It was the first manufacturer in the world to attain LEED Zero Carbon, LEED Zero Energy and LEED Zero Waste certifications at 100 percent of its manufacturing sites and the first in the industrial sector to earn Platinum-level WELL Building certification, held at its California and Illinois facilities. All four ECOS facilities hold the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management.

ECOS has made measurable progress toward its sustainability goals, detailed in its most recent annual Sustainability Report. In 2024, ECOS:

• Diverted 98.3 percent of its waste from landfills and incineration, up from 10 percent in 2009;
• Recycled and repurposed more than 3,500 tons of material, saving some 68 metric tons of CO2;
• Used 100 percent renewable energy, including on-site solar at each facility;
• Restored 16.4 million gallons of water to critically dewatered rivers and streams;
• Saved 633.84 metric tons of GHG emissions through manufacturing and product innovations.

ECOS is built on a foundation of green chemistry and sustainable innovation. From removing phosphates ahead of regulations in 2010 to banning more than 500 known toxins from its formulas, ECOS ensures that every ingredient is safer and serves a functional purpose, with no unnecessary added carbon costs.

Best known for ECOS liquid laundry detergent, the No. 1 selling green laundry detergent in the U.S., ECOS is now expanding its liquidless sheet and pack formats to reduce the weight of its products, cut shipping emissions and provide plastic-free packaging for consumers.

ECOS supports the communities around its four U.S. facilities. In 2024, ECOS donated more than 180 tons of cleaning products, valued at an estimated $1.4 million, to local non-profits including food banks, children's museums and youth and family resource centers.

Emerald Packaging's innovative packaging material is an unsupported coextruded film containing 30 percent post-consumer recycled resin – a first in potato packaging.

Developed in direct response to Walmart's Project Gigaton initiative, which aims to reduce or avoid one billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the global value chain by 2030, the film demonstrates a major step toward sustainable packaging.

The challenge was to maintain clarity, seal integrity and impact resistance while incorporating recycled content. Through advanced resin engineering, the result is a durable, high-performance and environmentally responsible packaging solution.

By meeting a use of 30 percent PCR resin in a grocery potato market food-contact film, Emerald Packaging overcame significant material performance challenges. The film had to have the same clarity, seal strength and machinability as its virgin polyethylene equivalent and possess strength capable of absorbing five and 10 pounds of potatoes falling into the bags from five feet.

It's a challenging packaging application, with the bag needing to survive nearly 500 pounds of impact force in the case of the 10-pound bag. To accomplish this, Emerald built a proprietary film formulation using a three-layer co-extrusion process.

By incorporating post-consumer recycled resin back into new products, the company has minimized the use of virgin resins made from fossil fuels, drastically reducing the material's carbon footprint. This innovation represents a shared commitment by grower, retailer and manufacturer to build a more sustainable supply chain.

It proves that environmental responsibility and product performance aren't mutually exclusive, paving the way for broader application of recycled content in food packaging.

The partnership shows how collaborative innovation – from resin optimization to large-scale rollout – can speed meaningful environmental impact.