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Published on: March 5, 2014
Corporate commitments to environmental sustainability made by SNAP-authorized food retailers
Maria DeNunzio1, Maaz Gardezi2, Gabrielle Bennett3
1Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA.
Background/Objectives:
Environmental sustainability is essential for food systems to support population health, yet is under-emphasized in diet-related population health efforts in the United States (U.S.). Corporate food retailers authorized for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are a meaningful sample for an exploration of environmental sustainability commitments, given their geographic spread and reach across socioeconomic segments of the population. There is no documentation of the landscape of environmental sustainability commitments by corporate SNAP-authorized food retailers to inform integrated population health and environmental sustainability research, practice, and policy. The purpose of this study was to identify the public commitments made by SNAP- authorized food retailers related to environmental sustainability.
Methods:
Corporate SNAP-authorized food retailers were defined as prominent and considered for study inclusion by the number of physical locations nationwide. Supermarkets and groceries were classified as traditional retailers, and all other store formats were non-traditional. Corporate commitments were collected on public facing websites between June- September 2024 as data sources for a content analysis. Commitments to environmental sustainability were categorized into nine relevant United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs).
Results:
A total of 48 retailers (n = 13 traditional and n = 35 non-traditional) were included, and 31 retailers had commitments included in the content analysis. The most retailers (n = 31) had commitments related to SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, while few food retailers (n = 7) had commitments related to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being. Between 16 and 28 food retailers committed towards five relevant SDGs including: Zero Hunger, Clean Water, Affordable Energy, Climate Action, Life Below Water, Life on Land, and Strong Institutions.
Conclusions:
Food retailers committed to a range of environmental sustainability topics, representing opportunities for partnerships, future research, and policy action. Developing partnerships for topics of interest to food retailers, like those within SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, may be viable opportunities for public health practitioners.
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