sustainability
Smith’s looks for meaningful partnerships with local communities to address environmental concerns and projects to build “green” communities together. Utah Business magazine named Smith’s as a Green Business award winner for its many actions, program and initiatives that promote environmental sustainability.
Smith’s stores collect used plastic grocery bags and shrink wrap from pallet shipments to send back for recycling into new grocery bags. The store level bag and shrink wrap recycling program kept 295 tons of plastic from landfills in 2010, the same amount of plastic needed to make 14.75 million more bags.
Smith’s offers many unique reusable shopping bag designs throughout the shopping year to offer customers a variety of bags to carry their groceries home in. The purchase of one reusable bag keeps 1,000 bags from being used. In 2010 through their purchase of reusable bags in our stores, Smith’s customers committed to keeping 176 million bags from being used.
For several years, the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico has partnered with 15 Smith’s locations to deposit old telephone books into collection bins parked in store parking lots over a six-week period.
Our newest fuel center includes a courtesy charge station for electric cars and was built to utilize solar panel add-ons and natural gas dispensing pumps in the future
Sponsorship of the Living Planet Aquarium’s Gentoo Penguin Exhibit brought smiles to 390,000 visitors whose enjoyment watching the sea animals bob and swim was mixed with a poignant reminder that of Earth’s precious natural resources.
More information is available about the Kroger Co. sustainability practices by clicking here.