Sustainability at Kroger

As America’s grocer, Kroger advances positive change in our company and our communities in ways that help protect people and our planet. Through our Zero Hunger | Zero Waste social and environmental impact plan, we are committed to helping create communities free of hunger and waste. We focus on achieving ambitious targets to reduce climate impacts and conserve natural resources.

Read Our 2021 ESG Report

Sustainable Supply Chain

Many of our customers want to know more about the food they eat – where it comes from and how it’s made – and they want to feel good about their choices. We are focused on reducing the environmental and social impacts of the products we carry in our stores, including the many Our Brands products in our assortment. With an average of 4,000 natural and organic products per store, a growing Fair Trade certified assortment and a line of newly launched plant-based alternative products, we offer our customers the assortment they are seeking.

Read more about our product sustainability, as well as progress on our Environmental, Social and Governance Goals.

Responsible Sourcing

Given our scope and scale, we are committed to reducing the social and environmental impacts of our supply chain by using responsible sourcing practices. Our policies, commitments and initiatives on topics like seafood, deforestation, human rights and animal welfare are charting our path towards a more sustainable and ethical supply chain.
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The Simple Truth®

The Simple Truth® product line continues to expand, achieving the milestone of more than $3 billion in annual sales in 2020. This popular brand provides our customers multiple ways to make more sustainable choices, like Fair Trade Certified ingredients, MSC certified seafood, plant-based meat alternatives, and more. In 2020, Simple Truth® launched a first ever retailer recycling program supported by TerraCycle, allowing customers to return Simple Truth® flexible plastic packaging for recycling by TerraCycle. This program has expanded to include all Our Brands products.

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Leading in Fair Trade Products

Through our partnership with Fair Trade USA®, Kroger helps support the people behind our Fair Trade Certified™ products to build sustainable livelihoods and uplift their communities around the world from which we source ingredients. For every Fair Trade Certified product sold, the producer earns an additional amount of money that goes into a farmworker-controlled Community Development Fund at origin. Kroger nearly doubled the volume of Fair Trade Certified ingredients we sourced in 2020, reaching more than 58.9 million pounds and 108 Simple Truth® products.

Sustainable Packaging

Kroger is committed to increasing the sustainability of Our Brands product packaging. Our key priorities include reducing unnecessary packaging, increasing the recyclability of our packaging and increasing the amount of recycled content in our packaging — while supporting our communities in building better recycling infrastructure and giving our customers options for recycling.
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Eco-Stewardship

Kroger is committed to improving sustainability by using natural resources responsibly, reducing the impact of our operations and eliminating waste. In our stores, manufacturing plants and distribution centers, we focus our efforts on increasing waste reduction and diversion, reducing energy and climate impacts, and increasing water efficiency.

Read more about progress on our Environmental, Social and Governance Goals.

Zero Waste

As part of Zero Hunger | Zero Waste, Kroger is committed to eliminating waste across our company by 2025. As a result of our associates’ hard work, we are now diverting 81% of waste from landfill, companywide. The amount of food waste produced in our stores decreased by 7.2%, while the amount of food waste diverted from landfill increased by 3.5 percentage points. Through our Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Food Rescue Program, we rescued 90 million pounds of food to support our communities—while also preventing food waste in our operations.

Energy Efficiency

Reducing our carbon footprint is an important pillar in Kroger’s sustainability commitment, and we continue to invest in energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies. Increasing energy efficiency, reducing refrigerant emissions and using more renewable energy are key areas of focus.

Renewable Energy

Adopting renewable energy helps Kroger reduce our greenhouse gas impacts. Our two anaerobic digesters turn food waste and food production byproducts into renewable biogas, while our multiple solar power installations generate clean energy. Our Paramount, Calif., distribution center hosts our largest solar array to date, while our manufacturing team activated their first solar array in early 2020 in La Habra, Calif.