Research Publications

The School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) team engaged with Meijer, Inc. to assess the environmental impacts of its core business activities, to develop an Environmental Commitment and Sustainability Plan, and to aggregate the sustainability efforts of the company to date. Meijer is a retailer with operations including manufacturing, distribution, and sales in six U.S. states. The team worked alongside Meijer employees focused on environmental sustainability to review and evaluate their current sustainability efforts for the fiscal year 2014 (FY2014) for the company. In addition, the team created sustainability objectives leading up to 2020, based on the company’s priorities, as well as a benchmark analysis of peer companies. Meijer has five core values that align with environmental sustainability. In addition, there is a strong trend in the retail industry to track and mitigate environmental impacts. The Environmental Commitment will serve as a foundation to integrate the values into the environmental sustainability program, while also serving to communicate those values to both internal and external stakeholders. The Environmental Footprint Report will serve as a benchmark for progress to measure the success of ongoing and future programs. The Sustainability Plan will serve as a guide for Meijer to meet its objectives. When creating the environmental impact report, Meijer and the SNRE team prioritized key areas where the company had the most significant environmental impacts. The scope of this report is limited to Meijer’s operations and does not include an analysis of its customers, products, supply chain, or transportation of goods to store locations by any third party distributor. The report covers the following section topics: 5.1. Water Use 5.2. Greenhouse Gas Footprint 5.3. Energy Use 5.4. Habitat Impacts 5.5. Waste Production & Disposal Meijer is the 19th largest private company in the United States. As such, the approach of the SNRE team differed from standard reports and strategies issued by publicly held companies to better fit the needs of the company. The SNRE team worked closely with Meijer to design a method that would incorporate standardized reporting guidelines, yet was customized for the needs of a privately held company.