HONOREE SIZE & INDUSTRY: Enterprise – Food, Beverage, and Grocery

Texan by Nature is excited to recognize H-E-B again in the 2020 TxN 20. H-E-B was also recognized in the 2019 TxN 20 for their efforts in conservation and sustainability that positively impact Texas’ communities, economic prosperity, and natural resources. Read their 2019 write-up. 

COMPANY OVERVIEW: 

H-E-B, LP. (H-E-B) is a Texas-based retailer that has been in business for 115 years with sales of $28 billion annually. Recognized for their fresh food, quality products, convenient services, and a commitment to environmental responsibility and sustainability, H-E-B strives to provide the best customer experience and lowest prices. Based in San Antonio, H-E-B employs over 120,000 Partners (employees) at their over 400 stores in Texas and Mexico and serves millions of customers in more than 300 communities. H-E-B is devoted to the Texas community and conservation – illustrating innovative sustainable efforts throughout their operations, from state-of-the-art, environmentally-friendly refrigeration and solar panel systems at stores and warehouse facilities to turning used tires into rubber mulch, and much more!

SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS STRATEGY

Conservation and sustainability is top of mind every day for H-E-B and an integral part of their business model. H-E-B believes that their work to care for the environment not only makes them better neighbors—it helps them to serve their communities better. By being energy efficient and conserving natural resources, H-E-B is not only helping the planet, they are also creating savings that they can pass to their customers in the form of everyday low prices. H-E-B is meeting their needs today and the needs of their customers and communities with conservation in mind to ensure healthy natural resources for future generations. From sustainably sourced local products to the reduce, reuse, recycle programs to education programs that help their customers and their communities become better stewards of the environment and everything in between, H-E-B makes sustainable practices a part of how they conduct business.

EMPLOYEE LEADERSHIP

H-E-B’s conservation efforts and impact would not be where they are today without the H-E-B corporate environmental affairs team that works tirelessly with a small core staff to drive conservation and sustainable business efforts across the entire company.

H-E-B engages employees at checkout to help reduce plastic bag use. By increasing the number of items that go into each bag at checkout, they have reduced the number of plastic bags they use. Adding just one more item to the bag saves them 308 million bags per year. 

H-E-B has delivered more than 1 billion pounds of food, non‑foods, perishables, over‑the‑counter drugs, pastries, and bread to food banks. In Texas and Northern Mexico in 2019, donations reached 35 million pounds which provided over 25 million meals to families.

CONSERVATION PROGRAMS

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

H-E-B implemented food waste (organics) diversion programs in Austin, Texas in May 2010 in alignment with Austin’s Universal Recycling Ordinance that supports the city’s zero-waste goal. The program removes or diverts organic materials from the landfill and turns them into compost and animal feed. Since that time H-E-B has grown their organics diversion from landfill programs across their operations to multiple other regions and locations. H-E-B’s strategic plan is to have the entire portfolio of H-E-B store operations on organics diversion by the end of 2023. This can lead to a low estimate in excess of 100 million pounds diverted from landfills.

H-E-B’s reduce, reuse, and recycle efforts by the numbers:

• Recycling efforts have saved the equivalent of 9 million trees.
• In 2019, more than 486 million pounds of waste was diverted from landfills by recycling materials including cardboard, plastics, office paper, food waste, metals, and truck tires.
• More than 45 million pounds of organics diverted from the landfill to compost and animal feed through H-E-B’s Organic Diversion Programs.
• In 2019, over 1.9 million pounds of plastic bags and film were collected from store recycling bins, H-E-B plans to expand this effort.
• Each year, H-E-B gives away more than 200,000 reusable bags on Earth day.
• H-E-B has plans for an initiative to help capture recyclables at many company-sponsored events.
• Car wash rinse water is reclaimed, filtered, and reused in the wash cycle, reducing potable water use by 80 percent, saving over 10 million gallons of water in San Antonio alone.

Transportation

H‑E‑B has been recognized as one of the best in the U.S. for safety and emission reductions. H-E-B has reduced their use of diesel fuel by over 830,000 gallons each year and carbon dioxide emissions by more than 8,300 tons annually, which is the same as removing 614,815 cars from the road for one day. 

• Efficiencies in truck wash saves 1.7 million gallons of water each year.
• H-E-B was the only Texas-based company invited to serve as a charter partner in the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay SM; Transport Partnership. The partnership was formed to reduce greenhouse gas and other harmful emissions from the heavy-duty sector.
• Fuel economy has improved by 14% in the past 5 years by using new technologies and running engines at lower RPM’s at road speed.
• Used truck tires are recycled into rubber mulch.

Sustainable Infrastructure & Renewable Energy Investments

Nine H-E-B stores have been awarded LEED® green building certifications and many of the same sustainable design strategies have been incorporated into H-E-B’s new stores. 

H-E-B is part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership, strengthening its commitment to reduce their carbon footprint by continuing to invest in cutting-edge, environmentally sustainable refrigeration systems. Their LEED Gold certified H-E-B at Mueller store in Austin serves as a test for numerous sustainable innovations including the first North American supermarket to use a whole-store propane refrigeration system.

Solar & Wind Powered Facilities:

• H-E-B’s Weslaco distribution center features nearly 4,000 solar panels spanning 105,000 square feet. The 1.2 MW installation supplies 40% of the facility’s energy each year. 
• H-E-B’s Temple Retail Support Center features a 1.4 MW rooftop solar panel system that provides over 1.7 million kWh of renewable energy to the facility. 
• The 2.4 MW rooftop solar panel system at H-E-B’s San Marcos facility supplies over 3 million kWh of renewable energy to that facility each year. 
• 4.0 MW of rooftop solar panel systems can be found on 18 of H-E-B’s Austin-area stores.
• H-E-B provides their South Texas facilities with 5 MW of wind energy from a Texas wind farm each year.

H-E-B’s investments in the renewable energy systems above provide over 5 million kWh of energy to these locations. 

Additionally, rooftop solar panel systems at 30 San Antonio stores –  over 10 MW of solar power on these locations, with each system providing over 15% of the energy used by the store, producing over 13.5 million kWh of renewable energy total each year. 

They have made considerable investments to strengthen the electrical service to their stores and have partnered with a Texas-based company to provide systems to their stores that ensure they always have reliable electric power. Not only do these systems allow H-E-B to better serve their customers and communities, but also provide critical service to all of Texas when the electric grid is in need.

Support of and Partnerships with Environmental Organizations

H-E-B supports environmental programs for organizations such as Keep Texas Beautiful, The Nature Conservancy, Audubon Texas, EarthShare of Texas, Cibolo Nature Center & Farm, Hill Country Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation, San Antonio Botanical Gardens, EcoRise, Texan by Nature, and many more.

In 2019, H-E-B partnered with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to strengthen their commitment to create an industry-leading sustainability program dedicated to sourcing top-quality seafood from socially and environmentally responsible fisheries and farms. As one of the biggest independently-owned retailers in Texas, H-E-B will continue using its voice as a large seafood buyer and environmental steward to influence change across the industry. 

Seafood sustainability is a top priority for the company, and H-E-B pledges to regularly update and enhance its policies with help from organizations such as EDF, which strategically advise the retailer in its efforts to support and uphold some of the industry’s highest standards. This commitment draws from EDF’s expertise and H-E-B’s longstanding efforts to continually improve its sourcing standards and transparency for all fresh, frozen, prepared and shelf-stable seafood.

Through a partnership with Ocean Trust, H-E-B is helping to restore 12,000 acres of estuarine habitat important for the sustainability of coastal fisheries and migratory waterfowl along the South Texas coast. 

BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

H-E-B’s core sustainability mission and methodologies have taken a huge leap forward in the past year and continue to gain momentum across their business. Their goal is to be the benchmark business in the omni channel retail space with respect to sustainable practices and conservation efforts both internally and externally through the support that they provide. 

H-E-B sees the future of conservation evolving very rapidly with changing technology, the ways that information can be shared, and access to information being almost instant. In addition, the way consumers shop is ever-evolving. As consumers become more educated and conservation-minded, there is an absolute need for H-E-B to conduct their business in the most responsible and least impactful way to the environment as possible. 

TEXAN-LED CONSERVATION

H-E-B’s roots are grounded in Texas, a state they will always call home. In 1905, in Kerrville, Florence Butt founded H-E-B, which has grown today into one of the nation’s largest, independently-owned retailers. H-E-B believes they are a company from Texas that works for all Texans, and that they aim to support and protect their home now and for future generations.

Learn more about H-E-B’s sustainable practices.

Definitions:

– MW or Megawatts are used to measure the output of a power plant or the amount of electricity required by an entire city. One MW = 1,000 kilowatts = 1,000,000 watts. 

– kWh or kilowatt-hours is the measure of electrical energy equivalent to the power consumption of 1,000 watts for 1 hour.

– LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is the most widely used green building rating system in the world.