Supermarket Perimeter - April 2019 - 11

Put sustainability
and corporate
responsibility front
and center in your
business
1. Adopt a business code of
ethics. A business code of
ethics will outline employee
conduct on issues such as
ethics, values, environment,
diversity, employee respect and
customer service.
2. Follow a workplace health
and safety program. Creating
a clear program will help you
establish reliable systems to
protect your employees and
prevent accidents and injuries. It will also ensure you are
compliant with government
legislation.
3. Commit to protecting
the environment. Consider producing a report that
documents your activities and
results as they relate to your
environmental impact.
4. Get your suppliers on
board. Screen them to determine their past conduct, and
tell them what you expect.
5. Be smart about donating
money. The idea is to give back
to society, while at the same
time sending a message about
the values of your brand.
6. Don't greenwash your
business. Make sure you walk
the talk and that your company does what it says it does,
otherwise your company could
risk a customer backlash.
7. Explore B Corp certification. B Corps are certified
"beneficial" companies. Their
purpose is to create value for
society as well as money.
Source: Business Development Bank of Canada

ways to leave the world a better place than it found it.
"We want to continue building the One Step program
so that we help make an even greater impact on the
world around us," Potthoff says. "We're also continually
looking at how we can further reduce the amount of
packaging used in our stores, and continuing to enhance our food waste diversion and recycling efforts."
Environmental impact remains hard to quantify, Shales say. Take water, as one example. In 2019,
Washington fruit growers will have more than enough
water from snowpack in the Cascade Mountains.
Other years water isn't nearly as plentiful and must be
sourced differently. What Stemilt can control, she says,
is a commitment to "continuous improvement," year
after year after year.
"We start something on a trial basis, test it and then
scale it," she says. "Being a heavy producer of organics,
a lot of that has transferred over to conventional because it makes business sense and because it supports
the environment."
Making packaging more sustainable is a front-burner
issue in today's food world, Shales says. Fortunately
for Stemilt, the vast majority of its apples and pears
bound for retail ship in bulk and are not packed in bags,
clamshells or other forms of packaging. And for items
that do ship packaged - in pouch bags, for example
- Stemilt is working hard to find the most recyclable
options available.
The company's cherries, for instance, are marketed
in packages. Stemilt and other growers are switching to
clamshells that are topped with a "top seal" - a layer of
peelable film instead of a traditional clamshell top.
"That reduces the use of plastic by 30 or 40%," Shales
says. "We see top seal as something that will come
online heavily with cherries."
Just like his grandfather before him, West Mathison,
Stemilt's current president, is committed to sustainability and social responsibility, Shales says. For West
Mathison, the health of Stemilt's employees is a top
priority.
In 2010, the company opened its first on-site health
clinic. In 2015, it evolved into the Stemilt Family Clinic,
which provides free health care to employees and their
dependents. A doctor and other health providers are on
site, and a pharmacy provides free prescriptions.
"For us it's about having preventable healthcare,
helping employees catch issues before they become
serious problems," Shales says. "It's been a huge
benefit."
In 2018, the clinic was expanded to include smaller
clinics spread throughout Stemilt's orchards. Staffed on
a rotating basis, the orchard clinics mean employees
don't have to drive as far as two hours to Wenatchee
for free health care.
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APRIL 2019 - 11

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Supermarket Perimeter - April 2019

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