When people ask me about my job, I always tell them that one of the most
important things I do is ask a lot of questions.
I’ve been in the natural foods industry for nearly 30 years. Back when I first
started out, if you wanted to know more about an ingredient, you had to look it
up in a book. Information was less readily available, which made it easy to
think of consumer goods as things that just magically appeared on grocery store
shelves.
But what first inspired me to get into this business — and what still drives me
today — is knowing where our food and other products come from, and
understanding how they are grown or produced.
So, in my role as the Chief Merchandising Officer at Thrive
Market, I ask a lot of questions. We want
to know everything we possibly can about the products we offer to our members.
In our 5,000-product catalogue of groceries, supplements, cleaning supplies,
personal care products and home products, you won’t find any artificial flavors,
colors or preservatives; nor will you find a single food product that contains
GMOs in its ingredient list (in fact, we’re the world’s largest GMO-free
grocer).
DEI and sustainability: The ROI of inclusive corporate cultures
Join us as leaders from the Accomplis Collective, Bard, Beneficial State Foundation, ReEngineering HR and REI share best practices for cultivating a culture of belonging and insights into how inclusive leadership can lead to more effective and equitable sustainability outcomes — Wednesday, Oct. 16, at SB'24 San Diego.
Once all of those boxes are checked, we dive into farming
practices,
labor
guidelines
and community impacts — because without people, we have no products to sell; and
without healthy
soil,
air and water, we have no food at all.
What you will find on our digital shelves are products grown on regenerative
farms;
many created by women and BIPOC
founders; and suitable
for dozens of unique diets, needs, and
lifestyles. You’ll find the latest
innovations in food and healthy living, thanks to our passionate and
knowledgeable team of buyers who are constantly keeping tabs on the latest
industry and consumer trends. You’ll find foods that are delicious and products
that deliver exceptional results.
Today, information is more available than ever; we’ve got the entire internet
literally at our fingertips. This takes transparency to a whole new level, and
it prompts us to ask some new questions: How can we go beyond simply knowing
where things come from? How can we provide solutions to some of the world’s most
pressing problems — such as soil depletion, decreasing biodiversity, and climate
change?
At Thrive Market, our core ethos has always been to solve what we see as the
primary problem — access to healthy food and products for all US shoppers,
regardless of geography or socioeconomic status — without creating other
problems along the way, for people or the planet.
Because of this, environmental responsibility is part of our company DNA. To
name just a few examples of our efforts in action: We’ve been carbon neutral
since day one — thanks in part to our investment in carbon
offsets,
through conservation projects such as Envira
Amazonia
(which works to protect hundreds of thousands of acres of tropical rainforest in
Brazil). Our deliveries are always ground shipped, which produces 82 percent
less carbon emissions than shipping via air. Our fulfillment centers are
wind-powered, use LEED-certified building elements, and employ zero-waste
practices.
We see our next task as going beyond sustainability — which aims to minimize
negative environmental impacts — towards an approach that preserves, heals, and
actually improves the planet. Simply put, we’re trying to leave the Earth better
than we found it.
After working with a team of industry-leading sustainability consultants, we’re
focusing on three key areas — carbon, waste, and excess plastic — and charting a
five-year path to become the world’s first climate-positive grocery store by
2025.
Given the scale of the problems at hand and the extremely high stakes, we know
even our bold commitments aren’t enough. But for us, the journey starts here.
Carbon emissions produced by our supply chain — known as Scope
3
emissions — make up most of our (and most companies’) carbon footprint. For a
business as complex as ours, taking that measurement is a challenge, but it’s a
crucial first step. From there, we can take actions to both continue to offset
and reduce our overall carbon footprint, which will ultimately help us surpass
climate neutrality and meet our first renewed sustainability commitment: to
become carbon negative.
At Thrive Market, we see our continued investment in regenerative agriculture as
a step in the right direction. This centuries-old farming method restores soil
health — which not only guarantees future harvests, but also has the power to
transform farmland into carbon sinks, or places that absorb more carbon than
they emit.
Many farmers already use regenerative methods such as composting, crop rotation,
and conservation tillage. By working closely with our partners around the globe
to better understand the processes currently in place at their farms, we’ve been
able to help them transition into 100 percent regenerative operations in many
cases. We’re proud to be supporting the return to farming practices that are
inherently climate-conscious through curating and developing regenerative items
— including 47 new items in this category last year. And many more to come.
Trash is another major contributor to climate change. Think of all the
single-use items that wind up in the garbage every day, from cups and straws to
paper towels and plastic bags. These things pack a one-two punch for global
warming: the greenhouse gas they release once they wind up in a landfill, and
the energy consumption required to constantly replace them with new products.
Since 2015, we’ve had zero-waste practices in place at all of our facilities. In
practice, that means recycling, composting, or reusing 90 percent of all
materials. At our fulfillment centers, compactors compress cardboard and plastic
into bales that can be diverted to recycling facilities. Broken shipping pallets
are repurposed as firewood. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, when our Los
Angeles headquarters was at full capacity each day, we collected food scraps
in the kitchen for compost.
As part of our second commitment to becoming climate positive, we intend to make
these mindful practices official in 2022 with Zero Waste Certification.
While we’re on the topic of garbage: Did you know that the US leads the world in
generating plastic trash, but only around 10 percent of it is recycled? Our
third sustainability commitment on the path to climate positivity is to achieve
plastic
neutrality
by 2023. That will require measuring all plastics sent to our members, starting
with our exclusive Thrive Market Goods products. Next comes offsetting those
items through partnerships with organizations such as The Plastic
Bank — which sets up “recycling ecosystems” in
countries that lack sufficient infrastructure, and employs local citizens to
collect and divert ocean-bound plastic
waste;
and rePurpose, which helps individuals and
businesses calculate and offset their plastic
usage.
A certain amount of plastic packaging is inevitable in our business, so we
always seek the most responsible option. Our first choice is compostable or
biodegradable packaging — currently, our team is testing compostable leak
protection bags and working on sourcing biodegradable pouches for our nut
butters; and late last year, we launched our first compostable product
(single-serve coffee in tea-like bags). The second-best option is packaging made
of recycled content and recyclable materials; our exclusive Thrive Market
collection features over 400 products that fit that bill. From there, we’re
focused on landfill reduction.
Of course, recyclable packaging is only good if you actually recycle it — and
unfortunately, that can be complicated. To remove some of the guesswork for our
members, we recently started using How2Recycle’s
standardized labeling system on our packaging to provide clear, simple recycling
instructions for different materials.
Because we know not all recycling programs are created equal, we’re also
pioneering a program with WasteZero that will make
it easier for our members to responsibly dispose of hard-to-recycle plastic
waste, keeping it out of landfills and oceans.
Through the program (which is being tested by a small segment of our members),
participants gather their recyclables, place them in a box, add a prepaid
shipping label, and send the box to WasteZero — which will sort the items and
work with their own recycling partners to repurpose the materials. While
WasteZero has been working with cities across the country on recycling and
waste-reduction programs, its partnership with Thrive Market is the first of its
kind. If it’s successful, the next step will be to offer it to more members.
It would be a cop-out to chalk up harm to the planet and its people as the
unavoidable collateral damage of running a nationwide consumer goods company in
this modern age. I think our industry can, and must, do a lot better than that.
When I got into the natural foods business in the early ’90s, I was joining more
than an industry; I was joining a movement. It was in some ways a backlash to
the rise of mass consumer culture in the 1950s and ’60s, and a welcome return to
the good old days of real, minimally processed, healthy, organic food.
Accompanying that step change on the consumer side was a seismic shift on the
business side — away from the traditional capitalist climate of intense
competition, and towards a culture of collaboration. Before then, it was unheard
of for like-minded brands to find the common ground in their missions and try to
solve problems together. Finally, companies were realizing they were on the same
team, and that by sharing the power, they could be a force for good.
That spirit of joining forces around a shared fate makes me optimistic about the
future. As Thrive Market doubles down on our mission to build a better market
and future, my hope is that others follow suit. We know that everyone can win
and business can be a catalyst for positive change. All it takes is some
thoughtfulness, collaboration, empathy and commitment.
Get the latest insights, trends, and innovations to help position yourself at the forefront of sustainable business leadership—delivered straight to your inbox.
Chief Merchandising Officer
Thrive Market
A twenty seven year veteran of the Natural Products industry, Jeremiah has been on all sides of the business and supply chain, literally from seed to shelf. (Read more ...)
Published Apr 26, 2021 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST