Meijer Presses Green Initiatives

(MoneyWatch)  Meijer is advancing its environmental initiatives, planning to add turbines to its headquarters and two stores near Lake Michigan, and putting more green products on its shelves.

Meijer has been evolving a sustainability strategy for several years now, opening a store in a Detroit suburb in 2007 that won Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Buildings Council. LEED certification provides third-party verification that a building lives up to environmentally responsible standards, is economically viable and provides a healthy work place. Also, Meijer's president Mark Murray's experience in college administration, including supervision of green initiatives during his tenure as president of Grand Valley State University, has brought expertise to Meijer's drive to go green.

The company has advanced its sustainability initiative by developing new knowledge and skills then seeing where they best apply rather than by focusing on any rigid agenda. The idea is, basically, to foster a sustainable sustainability program, one that is multifaceted but balances savings provided by initiatives such as adding low-energy lighting with costs incurred and the critical concerns of shoppers. One green program Meijer has adopted aims to reduce invasive plant species that threaten Lake Michigan ecosystems, a concern for many Meijer shoppers living in shore-side communities.

Local reports have Meijer adding six wind turbines atop its headquarters in the Grand Rapids, Mich. community of Walker. Smaller turbine installations are slated for stores in Grand Haven and Norton Shores, Mich., pending local zoning approval.

In the meantime, Progressive Grocer reports that Meijer has become the exclusive U.S. retail carrier of sustainable household, personal/baby care and pet products from ecostore USA, a company based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. The ecostore product line is plant based. For example, its Laundry Liquid is made of 100 percent certified organic eucalyptus oil combined with other plant-based ingredients while its Pure Oxygen Whitener adds citrus oil and coconut to a plant-based matrix for a formulation designed to be gentle enough to clean and brighten baby clothes