RRR-ing at Valley Natural Foods
Our flag pole is off the grid! The electrical grid, that is.
We just installed a solar-powered light for our new flag pole. With a energy saving LED light bulb and solar panels, it not only saves money, it’s green! This is just one step in our efforts to Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
What are we doing at Valley Natural Foods to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle? Orlando Haripal, fresh foods manager, is heading up the RRR program that looks at just that.
“We want to do what we can to help with the environment, not just as a co-op but as a business in the community,” Orlando explains. “I’m reaching out to members and vendors who are interested in reducing, reusing and recycling.”
What types of efforts are we looking at? Well, Orlando says he is working on getting vendors to take their boxes back, especially produce boxes that cannot be recycled here because of the wax lining. He is also excited about the possibility of implementing the use of compost. “We’ll start out composting on a small scale to see how it works and then build it from there,” he adds.
Orlando and other management staff are also meeting with community garden organizers about the possibility of a converting the co-op’s garden near the patio into a food-producing garden with additional educational programs to accompany it.
Although Valley Natural Foods is working towards RRR-ing, there are already green habits currently in play. Here are just a few:
Plastic bag and basic recycling, free drinking water with ceramic cups; the Green Stamp Program to reuse shopping bags; flooring in wellness and deli is made of recycled tires; opportunity to reuse your bottles and containers for any of our bulk items; leftover deli food is donated to Dakota Woodlands; bruised/expired produce that cannot be sold to customers is sold to employees at discount.
September 24th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
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