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One of the United States’ largest food distribution companies is boosting its efforts to tackle one of the country’s biggest supply chain problems: food waste.
On January 11, United Natural Foods (UNFI) released its “2020 Environmental, Social, and Governance Report,” highlighting the company’s commitments to global social and environmental issues. In that report, the Providence, Rhode Island-based company outlined its data-driven goals for the next decade, the biggest of which is a 50% reduction in its food waste by 2025.
Food waste is arguably the biggest problem facing the U.S.’s food supply chain. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food waste comprises 30 to 40% of the country’s food supply. Of its impacts on society, this includes food going to landfills instead of feeding Americans.
UNFI’s report included a number of other strategic and data-driven goals as part of the company’s “Better for All” initiative. Those goals include:
- Deriving 20% of its electricity from renewables by 2023
- Sending zero waste to landfills from distribution center operations by 2030
- Reducing its distribution center energy intensity by 30% by 2030
- Donating 250 million pounds of food by 2030
- Logging 200,000 employee volunteer hours by 2030
In UNFI’s fiscal 2020, which ended August 1, 2020, the company had total sales of $26.5 billion.
Image Credit: Photo by ja ma on Unsplash
