Environment Support

SAFEWAY TO A GREENER WORLD

Safeway Inc. is one of the leading food and drug sellers in North America, and one of the largest supermarket chains as well. Gaining more than $40 billion sales in 2006, Safeway presently has over 1,750 stores in the United States and western Canada, with its headquarters located in Pleasanton, California. Being a Fortune 500 company, Safeway extends support to a number of programs both charitable and community-based in the fields of education, cancer research, disability assistance, and other important causes.

History

In 1915, Marion B. Skaggs bought his father's Idaho grocery store. The store grew quickly, eventually operating a chain of stores which reached a number of 191 stores by 1920.

On the other hand, Sam Seelig Co. was established in Los Angeles in the 1920s. By 1926, there were already 673 Skaggs stores and 322 Seelig stores. Safeway came into being when Charles Merrill of Merrill Lynch orchestrated the merging of Skaggs Store and Sam Seelig Company in 1926. The name "Safeway" was then established thereon. He later left Merrill Lynch to run Safeway in the 1930s with its headquarters in Reno, Nevada, which was then transferred in California.

Board of Directors

Environmental Efforts

Safeway has transitioned its operations from being less efficient and sustainable into implementing more environmental and improved sustainable initiatives.

Safeway is the first retailer and grocer to join the Chicago Climate Exchange as well as the California Climate Action Registry, which would require the company to monitor, report, and certify its greenhouse gas emissions annually. In 2006, Safeway launched the Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Sustainability Initiative with an aim to decrease its carbon traces hence improving the quality of air. The company calculated the total amount of annual CO2 emissions radiating from its operating facilities and its transportation fleet; subsequently, the company implemented practical measures to significantly reduce emissions.

With the commitment to maximize its energy-efficiency initiatives, the company has also redesigned its store facilities and improved its processes and technologies. They began to use LED lighting, which significantly reduced electricity expenditure, to substitute their exterior store neon lighting. Fluorescent lighting and other high-efficiency lamps were also mounted. They also installed a new refrigeration system that would reduce the consumption of electricity to a great extent, as well as no heat-freezer case doors that would decrease electric heating.

The company joined the Smartway Transport Partnership, which is a coalition established to augment fuel efficiency while reducing greenhouse gases and other pollutants. In 2007, Safeway was able to convert its entire fleet in Arizona into using biodiesel, or B20, which is a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel. Biodiesel is a renewable fuel for trucks and cars that have diesel engines, which can be used solely or mixed with standard diesel. It can be made from vegetable oils, used cooking grease or animal fats. In the case of Safeway, their biodiesel is made from soy oil or canola oil, which is then combined with petroleum diesel. The use of B20 reduces the emission of hazardous elements such as sulfur, hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, and some particulates, thereby resulting to a cleaner, pollution-free air.

Based on a sustainability report dated February 1, 2008, Safeway has announced that its company will be converting its entire nationwide fleet of more than a thousand trucks to use B20. This would mean saving millions of gallons of regular diesel fuel, which would in turn reduce Safeway's emission of CO2 by up to 75 million pounds each year. This would be equivalent to 7,500 passenger cars that are not driven for one year, thousands of household electricity consumption for a year, and several thousand acres of pine forests storing carbon for a year.

Safeway is one of the largest retail purchasers of renewable power, or green power, which is electricity generated by resources that can be restored easily and produce minimal pollution, if not none. Examples of renewable power are wind energy, biomass, and low-impact hydropower. Safeway purchases a considerable amount of wind energy every year, enough to power all of its fuel stations, its corporate offices in Pleasanton, and all of its stores in San Francisco, California and Boulder, Colorado. They utilize 87,000 megawatts of wind-generated electricity annually. Furthermore, as part of its pledge to eradicate greenhouse gas emissions, Safeway partnered with Solar Power Partners in using another safe and renewable power source -- solar power. They installed solar panels in 23 of their stores in California, which is expected to provide an estimate of 10,000 megawatts per hour of solar energy per annum.

Safeway's operations are also involved in extensive recycling programs which are carried out in their stores and distribution centers in order to reduce the cost of garbage disposal and to decrease solid waste disposal to landfills. Their initiatives include recycling programs for paper (including customers who reuse the bags), plastics including plastic film, assorted plastics, and plastic bags dropped off by the customers; corrugated cardboards; biodegradable materials for compost, and other recyclable stuff. Around 500,000 tons of materials are recycled by Safeway every year, comparable to filling out six football fields that are stacked 35 feet high.

Safeway Environment Resources