2. Executive Summary
Whole Foods industries current corporate social responsibility (CSR) program relates to the way
Whole Foods does business. The three most important areas that Whole Foods focus's on is:
Supplier relations
Stakeholder involvement
Community impact
This embodies the three spheres of society: economic, political, and civil. Because Whole Foods cares
about their stake holders and wants to continue to excel in their CSR program, they have decided to analyze
how to enhance their current program and reevaluate goals for the future.
Introduction:
Whole Foods has a broad mission statement and many corporate values. To start, their motto is:
Whole Food, Whole People, Whole Planet. They believe in quality products and in valuing their people
and the environment. From there, the vision gets complicated: they claim interdependence and then they
have the following vision goals:
1. We sell the highest quality natural and organic products available.
2. We satisfy, delight and nourish our customers.
3. We support our team members excellence and happiness.
4. We create wealth through profits and growth.
5. We serve and support our local and global communities.
6. We practice and advance environmental stewardship.
7. We create ongoing win-win partnerships with our suppliers.
8. We promote the health of our stakeholders through healthy eating education.
Current Programs:
Supply Chain Programs:
Whole Trade Programs
Fair Trade agreements
Fair wages
3. Quality produce
Animal welfare
Global Animal Partnership
Refusal to sell cloned meat
Only sell palm oil products produced in environments that do not destroy rain forests.
Member of Marine Stewardship Counsel
Whole Foods will not sell products that destroy the sea
Environmental Welfare:
Recyclable/reusable bags
Wind energy credits for every unit of energy used
Solar energy supporting stores in some regions
Public compost programs
Building new stoors with recycled MDF wood products
Certifying Green buildings based on LEED standards
Conserve water by using flush less urinals
Use green cleaning supplies
Set up printing standards to decrease paper waste
Use bio diesel
Initiated 5% day donations by allowing 5% of people and resources to go and clean up
rivers or landfills, etc.
Only sell palm oil products produced in environments that do not destroy rain forests.
Member of Marine Stewardship Counsel
Whole Foods will not sell products that destroy the sea
Food Education:
Whole Foods educates there customers on food while they are in the store.
Whole Kids Foundation gives money to schools for salad bars and food education.
6000 salad bars will be in place across the nation as of 2013.
Local Giving:
Whole Foods has small business loans for new farmers.
Whole Foods gives to small food banks.
Whole Foods encourages local involvement in community service.
Whole Planet Foundation contributes to environmental needs.
Whole Kids Foundation contributes to children needs.
Current Stakeholder Relations:
John Mackey is the CEO of Wholefoods and has written a book about "conscious
capitalism" which is a new way of doing business.
Whole Foods is currently traded at $52.88.
It started at $1.32 in 1992.
CSR Score:
Whole Foods does not have a high CSR rating according to CSRHub.com. They are only 6 points
above average for their overall score. In contrast, Publix has a 50. Thus, Whole Foods rates higher than
other grocery stores or similar stores to Whole Foods. Se the tables below.
5. Economic Status:
Economically, Whole Foods is very stable and has a bright future. They have
good ratings from Morning Star and other investment companies.
Employee relations
Anti-union
Poor working conditions
Typical low retail wages
CEO makes 82 times lowest salary with stock options
Corporate culture
Profit is the bottom line
Investor relations
Shareholders are not encouraged to speak at the annual meeting
The Mackey way is it or the highway.
Suppliers
Suppliers have to meet standards but like Walmart and other companies,
inspections are posted and sometimes meat is shipped else where and still labeled
local
(http://michaelbluejay.com/misc/wholefoods.html§)
Future plans on the economic side for Whole Foods will be planned at an executive level, outside of
the CSR responsibility. However, the CSR director will push to increase the Whole Foods reputation in the
media by following through with nutrition education values, and encouraging better wages for employees
showing loyalty to Whole Foods.
Wages will be supplemented with a quarterly bonus based on regional performance. This will be
distributed in percentages down to the floor workers. Supply chain inspections will be changed to
unannounced and suppliers will have to follow through to show that they are meeting standards. It is not
Whole Foods intent to have a reputation like Walmart or McDonald s in the way that it treats its employees.
Implementing a living wage policy will be difficult but it should offset the cost of covering for the turn
over.
Political Status:
Whole Foods has a reputation of not adhering to the vison values that they profess.
Regulatory structures
6. Whole Foods meets most regulatory structures or exceeds them. However, they are
known for observing the competition and then buying them out quite aggressively. An
example is Wild Oats.
Adherence to government regulations
Whole Foods has been weak in mandating that the label of the food is accurately
portraying the origination and ingredients of their food products.
Relations to government entities
Whole Foods has been caught selling non organics labeled as organics and has had to
reestablish relations with the USDA via suppliers.
Whole Foods has to maintain the public relationship that they are selling what they say they are. This
means adhering to USDA regulations and maintaining ingredients labeling and organic stickers so that they
are accurate and that the US consumer is not misled. Putting food on the shelf without proper labeling will
not be tolerated. Whole Foods will also make its purchasing procedures more transparent. Hostile take
overs of competitors will no longer occur. If a competitor does not want to be bought out, Whole Foods
will build in other areas and let the consumers decide.
Civil Society Status:
Whole Foods currently claims to support small farmers but they buy the majority of their products
from conglomerate farmers. They also do not support boycotts of the United Farm Worker activists when
they speak out against contaminated, or genetically altered food. Whole Foods has also spoken out against
universal health care via CEO Mackey.
Whole Foods has little political affiliation. Whole Foods also does not associate with non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) with the exception of some fair trade agreement organizations, and the
Global Animal Partnership. Their contributions are in the communities that the stores are in which are
more higher income communities. Customers come from a higher pay bracket. They also do not always
adhere to purchasing sea safe fish policies or to purchasing fish that are harvested on turtle safe boats all of
the time. Their website sites that they strive to achieve their goals, but do not guarantee it.
7. If Whole Foods wishes to maintain their social presence, then they need to make direct affiliations to
Fair Trade Organizations and they need to get involved in Food Safety NGOs. Whole Foods will make a
commitment to the "New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition". Whole Foods will also reevaluate its
Fairtrade affiliation and become more active in the organization.
Whole Foods will prioritize buying locally and if a local producer cannot produce enough for demand,
then Whole Foods will approach that producer and consider investments for expansion to support the local
markets. Whole Foods will get involved in the White House initiative to provide children with more
nutritional choices and they will figure out ways to market and provide services for lower income groups
and work with programs like at Columbia University to fight against inner city hunger. Whole Foods is
also interested in challenging people not to waste food in the US.
Whole Foods is looking at teaming with the Society of St Andrew to fight food waste in America.
Statistics show that 40 to 50 percent of the food harvested in America is wasted, or never sees the table. If
Whole Foods can work with NGOs to find better solutions to get quality food to market, then perhaps there
is ways to get better nutrition to inner city environments, with out undue costs to the consumer.
Environmental Status:
Whole Foods will continue to do what they can to alleviate adding power to the US grid and work
with companies to maintain sustainable energy. They also will continue to reward consumers that choose
to use recyclable bags for getting groceries by giving a percent off the bill for using recyclable bags.
Whole Foods will also work with local suppliers to create reusable energy from store wastes. Whole
Foods will continue to implement LEED standards including finding ways to cool and store food that is less
expensive. Whole Foods will purchase hybrid tractors to pull supply trailers locally through cities for their
store distributions. Long haul tractors will drop off at distribution centers centralized to regional store
locations. This will decrease emissions and power use on a local scale.
Conclusions:
Whole Foods has a social responsibility to do what they say and say what they do. Currently there are
some holes in the program that are unacceptable. As 2014 is upon us, the rest of 2013 will be used to
stream line the corporate visions and to expand on the areas that are important. Instead of having eight, the
8. eight visions will be put into smaller categories. Simply put, Whole Foods will work to adhere more to the
Whole Food, Whole People, Whole Planet ideas.
Whole Food:
1. Encompass the quality products.
2. Sell natural products.
3. Accept only suppliers that are encompassing our fair trade, and food security
policies.
Whole People:
1. Be involved with fair trade agreements and become an international
supporter of fair trade markets.
2. Truly support our local farmers and our local economies.
3. Strive to provide fair working wages for our people that serve our
customers.
4. Reward innovation and efficiency because that increases our profits.
5. Reach to decrease turn over so that we can stay profitable.
6. Open stores in lower income neighborhoods to expand our mission of good
nutrition.
7. Create wealth through profits and growth.
Whole Planet:
1. Practice and advance environmental stewardship.
2. Reduce Whole Foods emissions foot print.
3. Reward shoppers and workers for being environmentally conscious.
4. Create store environments that are sustainable.
If Whole Foods can streamline their mission and vision, then it will be clearer on how the actions can
be maintained and people can be held accountable. Corporate wise, streamlining the CSR goals will allow
the corporation to track successes and will increase the Whole Foods positive public image. When we are
successful with streamlining our vision and tracking our successes, then profits will follow. Actually being
involved in local needs will give us more long term support. Supporting the nutritional education of all
people will also broaden the Whole Foods market. Admitting to our mistakes and making amends will
increase our marketability and in the end, make us a better company.
References:
Ashoka, Forbes Magazine, "Conscious Capitalism: Q and A with Whole Foods CEO John Mackey",
(2013) Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2013/03/01/qa-with-whole-foods-ceo-john-
mackey-about-conscious-capitalism/
Corporate Social Responsibility Rating, (2013) retrieved from
http://www.csrhub.com/CSR_and_sustainability_information/Whole-Foods-Market-Inc/§
9. Declaration of interdependence. (2013). Retrieved from
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mission-values/core-values/declaration-
interdependence
We create ongoing win-win partnerships with our suppliers. (2013). Retrieved from
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mission-values/core-values/we-create-ongoing-win-
win-partnerships-our-suppliers
Michael BlueJay, The Real Whole Foods, (2013) retrieved from
http://michaelbluejay.com/misc/wholefoods.html§
Skousen, D. M. (2006). Interview with John Mackey: A whole foods "stakeholder" model for better
business and bigger profits. InvestmentU, (608), Retrieved from
http://www.investmentu.com/2006/November/20061117.html
Society of St Andrew (2013) retrieved from http://endhunger.org/food_waste.htm§
10. Declaration of interdependence. (2013). Retrieved from
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mission-values/core-values/declaration-
interdependence
We create ongoing win-win partnerships with our suppliers. (2013). Retrieved from
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mission-values/core-values/we-create-ongoing-win-
win-partnerships-our-suppliers
Michael BlueJay, The Real Whole Foods, (2013) retrieved from
http://michaelbluejay.com/misc/wholefoods.html§
Skousen, D. M. (2006). Interview with John Mackey: A whole foods "stakeholder" model for better
business and bigger profits. InvestmentU, (608), Retrieved from
http://www.investmentu.com/2006/November/20061117.html
Society of St Andrew (2013) retrieved from http://endhunger.org/food_waste.htm§