PG 2014 Retailer of the Year: Better Neighbor’s Road to Zero Waste

Jihad Rizkallah, Ahold USA's VP, Responsible Retailing, discusses how the company’s eco-minded commitment fits with its Better Neighbor promise.

Jihad Rizkallah, VP, responsible retailing for Ahold USA, has a healthy appetite for zero waste. Accordingly, he’s been pivotal in setting the aggressive agenda that’s driving the company’s corporate responsibility commitment. “It fits with our [Better Neighbor] promise,” says Rizkallah, the key building blocks of which are “also part of our commitment to caring for the environment, and the health of the communities we serve.”

In tandem with one of its Our Family Foundation’s primary missions of eradicating hunger is Ahold USA’s waste reduction effort, which leads with a bold goal to reach zero by 2020, “meaning at least 90 percent of our waste is diverted from landfills and incineration to other uses,” Rizkallah explains. This includes the expansion of organic recycling programs, and the identification of new opportunities for recycling cardboard and plastic.

To wit: Ahold USA divisions have to date reduced the number of disposable bags by 447 million, compared with the 2011 baseline, says Rizkallah, who notes the company’s wider goal of upping that number to 1 billion bags by 2015. The company is also working with cashiers and baggers to further reduce the number of bags used by ensuring they’re properly filled, which he says is one of the single best ways to encourage customers to curtail wastefulness.

“We’re big on energy conservation across the company,” Rizkallah declares. The company’s commitment to reducing its total carbon footprint by 20 percent by 2015 is “a primary tenet of Ahold USA’s main corporate responsibility priorities, and … helps us minimize our impact on the environment while at the same time making operations more efficient,” he adds.

Without question, Ahold USA’s demonstrated, ongoing commitment to the communities and neighborhoods its stores serve on a daily basis, coupled with its pioneering leadership in the green building movement, is vividly evidenced by a variety of environmental leadership accolades, including recognition by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the eighth-largest green-power purchaser among retailers, as well as No. 7 on EPA’s Top 20 retail list and No. 30 on its national Top 50 list of green-power purchasers. According to EPA, Ahold USA’s green-power purchasing is equivalent to eliminating the carbon dioxide emissions of more than 20,000 passenger vehicles per year, or pulling the plug on the electricity usage of nearly 13,000 average American homes annually.

Its eco-minded diligence, notes Rizkallah, has enabled the company to purchase more than 149 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually via renewable energy certificates (RECs) and self-generated green power from its on-site renewable energy systems. Since 2008, Ahold USA has been developing its renewable- and clean-energy portfolio, which includes roof-mounted solar photovoltaic systems and a fuel cell project at a Stop & Shop in Torrington, Conn., which consumes natural gas to produce electricity and waste heat. The electricity generated provides 95 percent of the store’s annual electricity requirements, and the waste heat offsets the gas consumption required to heat the air and provide hot water for the store.

Nurturing the Promise, Powering the Charge

Further evidence of the company’s continuing quest to illuminate its green cred can be seen in six of its recent stores having earned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Ahold USA ranks as having the largest number of LEED-certified stores among U.S. grocery retailers, with more to follow.

“We have made, and continue to make, major investments in renewable energy sources,” says Rizkallah, who’s leading the charge to further lighten Ahold USA stores’ energy loads with LED lighting, energy-efficient refrigerated cases and other eco-friendly retrofitted equipment, all of which netted $41 million in electricity savings in 2013. He also spearheads related grass-roots action in stores via “mini conservation initiatives that encourage everyone to play a role. We’re looking at healthy communities from all aspects,” affirms Rizkallah, an architectural engineer by training who’s a natural fit for his influential and wide-reaching role.

Despite these achievements, when asked about the significance of the impressive strides Ahold USA has taken in its eco-conscious approach, Rizkallah is the picture of modesty: “We’re not doing these things for publicity or awards; we genuinely believe it’s just the right thing to do.”

Stop & Shop's Anaerobic Digester Takes Shape

While Ahold USA’s enduring commitment to environmental stewardship is undeniably remarkable, its pièce de résistance, blending technology and sustainability, is now underway at the Stop & Shop distribution center in Freetown, Mass., which is slated to become home to a 12,000-square-foot anaerobic digester that will divert energy from food waste in landfills and incinerators by converting spoiled food to energy.

Central to the cutting-edge $19 million project — which taps into the hidden energy value of unsold food and creates renewable energy from organic materials — is the construction of a Product Recovery Operation (PRO), which uses anaerobic digestion to recover the economic value in unsold food products to produce electricity and heat for this facility, as well as generating a fertilizer byproduct from the solid residue created, which can create secondary-market compost for use in fertilizers and gardens.

“We are very proud of this major undertaking, which supports our commitment to zero waste by 2020,” and also which corroborates “our industry-leading stance for operating efficiencies and clean energy,” affirms Jihad Rizkallah, Ahold USA’s VP, responsible retailing, who is working closely with state and local officials to bring the renewable, clean-energy-generating project to completion in the next 15 months. “We’re hoping by the end of next year to turn the lights on,” adds Rizkallah.

While Ahold USA already diverts its unsold food to composting and animal feed facilities, the project takes its efforts one giant step closer to greater environmental and economic benefits by converting organic material into electricity and reusable materials for soil.

The complex yet highly practical initiative takes unsold produce, bakery, deli items and other unsaleables to the distribution center in heavy-duty plastic-lined containers, sealed to fully contain the product, stored in designated areas at source sites and retrieved within 24 hours of the containers’ being filled.

“It’s actually an easy process, which turns product into a slurry mix that’s taken to a biological tank and turned into a biogas, which will feed the generators to produce electricity that will be used by the distribution center,” Rizkallah explains. “The electricity produced by the operation will provide up to 40 percent of the distribution center’s on-site electrical power needs, and backup power in the event of an outage.”

Further, the operation will process an average of 95 tons per day of unsold food product, and have the capacity to produce 1.137 megawatts for electrical power and heating purposes.

“The idea that you can take all of the waste products from stores and reverse them back to the distribution center on a return trip, then convert them into methane gas for electricity, and solid compost for farmers to grow more crops, is incredible,” marvels COO James McCann.

McCann hopes to see additional retailers throughout the industry follow suit, “because the benefits to doing so for business, society and the planet as a whole are a really, really good thing.”