By Aamna Anwer, ASU sustainable food systems graduate student
Sprouts Farmers Market has been commended by Fortune magazine as one of the World’s Most Admired Companies not once, but twice. If you ask Taylor Mata, manager of store #20, the best part about working at Sprouts is the culture. “The team is the best. Everyone is always ready to step up and support one another,” shared Mata, who has worked at Sprouts for eleven years.
First-year graduate students of the Swette Center’s Sustainable Food Systems program got the opportunity to tour the store that Mata manages in Tempe. Sprouts Farmers Market is purpose-driven, with the mission of providing wholesome, better-for-you products to their customers. Sprouts is headquartered in Phoenix, with over 400 stores in 23 states nationwide.
During the tour of the Sprouts store, students observed some of the strategies employed to show parity between plant-based options and their animal-based counterparts. Mata explained that every store is audited by corporate staff on a number of metrics including waste diversion rates. Store #20 had a 74% diversion rate, meaning that only 26% of the store’s waste was routed to the landfill, the rest being donated, recycled, or composted. In 2023, the store donated 175,000 pounds of unsellable food to St. Mary’s Food Bank.
Sprouts’ distributor, KeHE®, a Certified B Corporation, was unloading a truck during the store tour which gave students an opportunity to learn more about some of Sprouts’ upstream sustainability strategies. Brandon Rowold, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition, was present during the unloading to address the class and share KeHE’s sustainability practices. Students were able to look inside the truck and observed the use of moveable walls that allow the trailer to optimize energy efficiency while maintaining proper food safety temperatures during the shipping process. KeHE utilizes electric yard spotters, pallet jacks, and forklifts to reduce fossil fuel emissions from their equipment.
Students also met with Justin Kacer, Sprouts’ sustainability manager. Justin shared the company’s corporate sustainability goals, including strategies the company is using to measure and reduce its Scope 3 emissions. Some of these strategies include exploring new sustainable packaging for products, reducing landfill waste rates, and a Zero Waste by 2030 goal. Currently, approximately 85% of Sprouts product packaging is recyclable. Kacer shared that the highest emitters within Sprouts grocery products are their beef, dairy, and potato chips.
The experience of visiting Sprouts Farmers Market showed students that sustainability can be a core value for a successful and profitable enterprise.
This blog is part of a series from the Swette Center's annual Arizona Food and Farm Immersion, a required course in their two graduate programs. Students tour the state, meeting with farmers, ranchers, entrepreneurs, government staff, and non-profit leaders.