Kroger Recognized in Newsweek's 2016 Green Rankings

The Kroger Co. has earned a place in the 2016 Newsweek Green Rankings.

The Newsweek Green Rankings assess the 500 largest publicly-traded companies in the United States and the 500 largest publicly-traded companies globally on overall environmental performance.

"We appreciate being named in Newsweek's 2016 Green Rankings for Kroger's efforts to drive sustainability and innovation in the supply chain," says Jessica Adelman, Kroger's group vice president of corporate affairs. "Kroger's improvement of 68 places on the list is a good indicator of our sustainability progress, but we are not done taking steps to reduce our impact on the environment."

 Kroger's aggressive work in energy management has enabled it to reduce overall energy consumption in Kroger stores by 35 percent. Even though Kroger continues to grow in size and sales, its emissions continue to decline. 

Kroger is moving toward the EPA's Zero Waste threshold of 90 percent in all retail locations. One of Kroger's key sustainability priorities is moving its facilities toward "zero waste". Whether it is diverting waste from landfills, reducing packaging, recycling plastic bags, or donating safe, perishable foods to food banks, Kroger is increasing recycling rates and finding cost-effective and responsible alternatives for its waste.

Kroger's number one community priority is to support organizations that bring food and hope to our hungry neighbors. A founding partner of Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger agency, Kroger worked with more than 100 local food banks in 2015 to donate the equivalent of 276 million meals.

Over the last eight years, Kroger has created more than 74,000 new jobs. This figure does not include jobs created as a result of capital investment, such as temporary construction jobs, nor does it include increases due to mergers.