2026 Sustainability Award Winners

Tops Friendly Markets has embedded sustainability into every aspect of its operations through innovative food waste reduction, recycling, energy efficiency and community partnerships that deliver measurable environmental and social impact.

In 2026, Tops has recycled 157,447 tons of cardboard and newspaper, 2,732 tons of plastic bags and stretch film, 2,533 tons of used cooking oil and 5,545 tons of organic materials, significantly reducing landfill waste while advancing a circular economy.

Recognizing that the most sustainable food is food that is eaten, Tops has developed multiple initiatives to keep edible food out of landfills. Through its Fresh Recovery Program, operating in all 130 New York stores in partnership with Feeding New York State, Tops donated 1.6 million pounds of food to local food banks and pantries, with every pound tracked and reported.

Through its partnership with Flashfood, available in 84 stores, customers purchase products nearing their best-by dates at discounts of up to 65 percent. The program has saved shoppers more than $8.9 million while preventing over 3.3 million pounds of food from entering landfills.

For food that cannot be donated, Tops expanded its Food Waste De-Packaging Program with Denali, separating packaged meat, dairy, bakery, prepared foods and other organics from packaging to create compost. Recovered material increased from 25,320 pounds to 87,720 pounds in just over a year and the program has expanded to 20 stores.

Tops also pioneered customer-facing composting through its From Scraps to Soil initiative with Farmer Pirates Compost. Building on commercial composting at 18 stores that has diverted 455,289 pounds (228 tons) of organic waste, community composting pilots in Hamburg and North Tonawanda now engage 56 households and have already composted nearly 5,300 pounds of food scraps.

Energy efficiency is another cornerstone of Tops' sustainability strategy. Beginning with 26 stores, Tops implemented advanced energy modeling to optimize HVAC, refrigeration and lighting systems. The initiative expanded to 42 stores, delivering immediate operational savings, with 12 stores achieving first-year energy reductions of 1.8 percent to 5.76 percent while unlocking additional utility incentives and refrigeration retro-commissioning opportunities.