Whole Foods Market released its second annual Impact Report, detailing the company’s investments in reducing waste, advancing climate-smart agriculture, empowering team members, sourcing products mindfully and strengthening the communities in which it operates.
“With our purpose to nourish people and the planet, we continue to hold ourselves to the highest industry standards when it comes to product quality, reducing our environmental impact, supporting our communities and investing in our team members. The big wins, growth and positive impact we have achieved in 2023 are all built on decades of hard work and investment, and we’re excited to build on that tradition and continue to create lasting, positive change across the grocery industry.” Whole Foods Market CEO Jason Buechel said:
Highlights from the 2023 Impact Report include:
-Keeping approximately 70 percent of waste from our stores and operations away from landfills, maintaining recycling programs in 99 percent of our stores and maintaining organics diversion programs, such as composting, in approximately 85 percent of our stores.
– Sold over 41,000 organic and 154 certified recycled products across stores.
– Retained over 550 banned ingredients across food, beverages, supplements, body care and household cleaning standards.
-Donated more than 28 million meals (approximately 34 million pounds of food total) to nearly 1,000 unique food rescue and distribution programs.
– Promote more than 8,700 team members in 2023 and graduate nearly 1,800 team members from career development programs.
– Awarded more than $1 million to local suppliers through the Local Producer Loan Program in 2023 and introduced 10 participants to the Local and Emerging Accelerator Program (LEAP) Early Growth Cohort.
– Disbursed more than $9 million in premium funds to Sourced for Good suppliers, supporting a range of projects that benefit workers and their communities.
– Funded more than 26,600 microloans in 37 countries through the Whole Planet Foundation, awarded 64 Community First grants to community-led organizations through the Whole Cities Foundation, and donated 509 teaching gardens, 43 salad bars, and 108 bee hives to schools through the Whole Kids Foundation.
– The 365 by Whole Foods Market brand offers more than 2,600 affordable, carefully sourced products. As of the end of 2023, approximately 1,000 of these products are organic.
Whole Foods Market continues to invest in new initiatives that will positively impact its stores, supply chain and employees as part of its “Growing with Purpose” 10-year vision that will lead Whole Foods Market into the future to fulfill its higher purpose of nourishing people and the planet. After adding eight new stores in 2023, the company has approximately 100,000 team members in 536 stores across the U.S., U.K. and Canada.
