Honoree: Enterprise – Food Industry

Company Overview

H-E-B is a Texas-based retailer operating more than 400 stores in Texas and Mexico. Headquartered in San Antonio, H-E-B is the largest privately-held employer in Texas and has more than 116,000 Partners companywide. 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 repurposing cooking oil and turning used tires into rubber mulch.

Sustainable Business Strategy

H-E-B believes, as a retail leader, they have a longstanding commitment to support their communities and conduct their business in an environmentally responsible and sustainable manner. To ensure they protect the planet now and for future generations, they are committed to business strategies that continually improve their use of natural resources, minimize waste, conserve energy and water, preserve air quality, and safeguard the environment in all areas of their operations. They believe that their work to care for the environment not only makes them better neighbors – it helps them enrich people’s lives and maintain strong, healthy communities. H-E-B believes that they have an opportunity and a responsibility to make a positive impact, and that means doing more with less while still offering an excellent shopping experience. In doing so, they work to ensure the health and vibrancy of the neighborhoods and planet we share.

Environmental Stewardship

H-E-B’s conservation efforts would not be where they are without Ted Lechner, Reverse Logistics Manager, and 46-year H-E-B Partner. Ted and his team oversee the company’s recycling efforts. Through their work, they are able to reuse and process various recyclables such as cardboard, plastics, paper, wood, and metal to help reduce waste and contribute to a circular economy. Their team continuously looks for innovative ways to limit the amount of waste the company sends to the landfill by collecting plastic bags at store entrances, the plastic film from warehouses, pill bottles from pharmacies, and buckets and milk jugs from their manufacturing facilities.  Additionally, their team holds a monthly public auction to sell surplus equipment from stores and offices as well as operates a robust perishable rescue program where edible food is donated to 17 food banks throughout Texas. Furthermore, their team recirculates Reusable Plastic Containers, pallets, snack boxes, and floral buckets into their network and refurbishes or recycles at the end of the life cycle. Thanks to the efforts of Ted and his dynamic team, H-E-B has received several conservation awards and was one of the first businesses to earn the Gold Certification from the City of San Antonio’s ReWorksSA program, an initiative that focuses on helping companies implement best practices in waste management and recycling.

Conservation Programs

 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

H-E-B has a longstanding commitment to recycling and reducing waste sent to the landfill.  Last year, H-E-B recycled 475 million pounds of cardboard, plastics, paper, metals, wood, truck tires, and food waste. They are committed to reducing food waste and diverting for beneficial use by following the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Food Recovery Hierarchy:

1. Reducing the amount of food waste generated through continuous improvement processes in manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and handling in stores

2. Donating safe, edible foods to food banks:

• The H-E-B Food Bank Assistance Program works year-round to raise awareness and battle hunger in Texas and Mexico.
• In 2018, H-E-B donated more than 32 million pounds of food to Texas and Mexico food banks, equal to over 25 million meal

3. Diverting food scraps for animal feed:

• Cooking oil is recycled and converted into an agricultural feed additive
• Inedible meat by-products, fat and bone trimmings, are collected daily and processed into fuel and animal feed
• H-E-B has diverted more than 50 million pounds of organics from the landfill to compost and animal feed.

4. Composting food waste:

• Austin H-E-B stores collect food waste that is no longer suitable for human consumption and sends it to a local composter

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. In 2018, they recycled more than 1 million pounds of plastic bags and film.

In 2017, H-E-B’s recycling efforts saved the equivalent of 12 million trees, 1 million barrels of oil, and 690 million kilowatt hours¹ (kWh). That’s enough to power more than 45,000 homes for an entire year!

GreenChill Partnership

H-E-B has joined the EPA’s GreenChill Partnership. GreenChill is an EPA partnership with food retailers to reduce refrigerant emissions and decrease their impact on the ozone layer and climate change. This partnership illustrates H-E-B’s devotion to reducing its carbon footprint by investing in cutting-edge, environmentally sustainable refrigeration systems. As part of this voluntary program, H-E-B continues its path to adopt more environmentally friendly refrigeration technologies, strategies, and practices that will significantly reduce refrigerant emissions and impact on the environment.

For example, the H-E-B Buffalo Heights store in Houston received the EPA’s GreenChill Gold Level Certification Award. This H-E-B location uses 70% to 80% less refrigerant compared to a typical store, which will reduce its greenhouse emissions by up to 75%. That is equal to more than 3.1 million miles driven by a passenger vehicle. Additionally, the equipment is designed to be leak-tight, as it is factory-sealed and factory-charged.

Spirit of Giving

Beyond natural resources, H-E-B is devoted to giving back across Texas. Each year, H-E-B donates five percent of pre-tax annual earnings to charitable organizations in the communities it serves. H-E-B’s charitable giving is focused on hunger relief, education, health, environmental sustainability and diversity initiatives. Some examples of their work in the Texas community include:

• Since 2011, HEB has donated nearly 4 million books to children in need.
• In 2019, H‑E‑B customers across Texas raised $672,000, or 3 million meals for 17 Texas food banks.
• H-E-B gives over $10 million annually to Texas public education

Each year, H-E-B supports over 75 environmental organizations in Texas. Through these partnerships, they believe that they can make the biggest impact on the community and conservation efforts across the state. Their community investment portfolio includes contributions to support environmental programs for organizations including: Keep Texas Beautiful, The Nature Conservancy, Audubon Texas, EarthShare of Texas, Cibolo Nature Center & Farm, Ocean-Trust Texas, Hill Country Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation, San Antonio Botanical Gardens, Texan by Nature, and many more. Through their partnership with Ocean Trust, they are helping to restore 10,000 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 believes the future of conservation will change rapidly and that forming alliances with like-minded and conservation-centric companies and organizations will be crucial to conserving all of our natural resources.

H-E-B commits to the highest levels of environmental stewardship in their operations and will continue to support state-wide conservation efforts to establish healthy, vibrant communities for future generations. They are committed to continuing to innovate at various levels of their business, ensuring they minimize their footprint and operate responsibly to enrich the community.

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.

H-E-B demonstrates this deep commitment through public service involvement in the more than 300 communities where it operates. Known as the H-E-B Spirit of Giving, its roots can be traced to the company’s earliest days when H-E-B founder Florence Butt and her youngest son, Howard, took food baskets to the homeless that lived along the banks of the Guadalupe River.

The Spirit of Giving is still an integral part of everyday business at H-E-B and a tradition that it proudly continues. H-E-B’s charitable giving is focused on hunger relief, education, health, environmental sustainability and diversity initiatives. Among these efforts, H-E-B is a major supporter of public education, donating more than $10 million annually to education-related programs. Since 1982, the company has donated more than 1 billion pounds of food to nonprofit organizations throughout Texas and Mexico. Further, their H-E-B Mobile Kitchens and Disaster Relief Units are dispatched during natural disaster relief efforts and the H-E-B Feast of Sharing dinners, which serves holiday meals to 250,000 people throughout the holidays.

Definitions:

¹ Kilowatt-hours is the measure of electrical energy equivalent to the power consumption of 1,000 watts for 1 hour.

View H-E-B’s Sustainability Page