Costco Goes Greener in Latest Fiscal Year
Costco Wholesale Corp., which just reported strong demand for groceries during its first quarter of 2025 and confirmed expansion plans for 2025, also shared progress on some of its sustainability goals related to the pillars of operations, people and communities and merchandising.
In the Dec. 12 earnings call, President and CEO Ron Vachris noted that it has been a busy year for the company from an ESG point of view. “We have continued to grow globally, reaching more than 890 warehouses around the world. Consequently, we recognize the importance of continuing our work towards a more sustainable future for our members, employees, suppliers, shareholders, communities and the environment. We’ve also seen an evolving regulatory landscape and believe that our work in sustainability will help us prepare for these changes,” he remarked.
To Vachris’s point, Costco continues to work across areas of sustainability, The club operator shared that it continues to tackle its Climate Action Plan, working towards its Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions goals. During its fiscal 2024 year, Costco took more steps to educate employees and its supply chain, improve the way it measures, reports and verifies climate-related information and test and scale new ideas. One highlight is the introduction of Costco’s Scope 3 Supplier Targets, Transition Agriculture, Energy Solutions and Packaging Solutions (STEP) program with its buying teams to work on Scope 3 initiatives.
In the area of people and communities, Costco recapped how it recently expanded its workforce dashboard beyond the United States to help operators invest in their workforce. In addition, the operator donated more than $84 million to local charities in FY2024.
Other sustainability results include initiatives to minimize water, waste, energy and emissions in warehouses and the launch of Energy Star benchmarking that helps warehouse sites compare against solar buildings. Also during its fiscal year that wrapped in September, Costco replaced more than seven million gallons of diesel with renewable diesel and installed 13 more CO2-based refrigeration systems.
Meanwhile, Costco is broadening attempts to carry more sustainable merchandise by engaging suppliers directly to encourage target setting, piloting regenerative agriculture investments with partners and teaming up with organizations such as the Seafood Task Force and Equitable Food Institute.
In other Costco news, the warehouse operator was named the top grocery retailer in Canada in the annual retailer preference index released by data science firm dunnhumby. Dunnhumby reported that Costco ranked first for operations nationally in Canada and is becoming more accessible through third party-service platforms like Uber Eats and Instacart.
Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco currently operates more than 882 warehouses, including 600-plus in the United States and Puerto Rico, 108 in Canada and 40 in Mexico. The company is No. 3 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named Costco among its Retailers of the Century.
