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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Meijer plans to host a Sustainability Summit this fall, allowing the retailer to build on last year’s inaugural event and give even more vendors nationwide the opportunity to showcase their environmentally-focused products for possible placement on Meijer’s store shelves.
The virtual event will be held October 11 to 13 and seeks to let Meijer connect with suppliers that have sustainable products in the food, health and beauty, everyday essentials, pets, apparel, and general merchandise categories.
“At Meijer, we understand that to be a good company, we must be a good neighbor, which is why we’re interested in meeting new vendors to further integrate sustainability attributes into our product offerings and daily operations,” said Don Sanderson, Chief Merchandising and Marketing Officer at Meijer. “We want to provide our customers with the great products they’re looking for while also being mindful of the impact those products make within our communities and the world around us.”
The Meijer Sustainability Summit aims to build relationships with environmentally conscious suppliers to expand its sustainable product offerings in categories storewide. In order to meet its sustainability standards, Meijer merchants are targeting 38 different certifications on vendor products, or their manufacturing and procurement processes. For example, seafood merchants are looking at vendors following the Best Aquaculture Practices, and toy merchants are interested in vendors that have Ecologo certifications to ensure products are made without harmful chemicals. Meanwhile, the retailer’s grocery and consumable merchants are looking for vendors who participate in the Rainforest Alliance Certification Program that validates standards on forests, climate, human rights and livelihoods. Meijer is also seeking products across all categories with sustainable packaging attributes.
Certified vendors with retail-ready products can apply by Aug. 25 for consideration here.
Meijer is partnering with Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing (ECRM) and its subsidiary product discovery tool, RangeMe, to host this event through the company’s ECRM Connect virtual platform.
Once applications for the event are submitted, Meijer teams will review and select the vendors they would like to meet at the summit. Suppliers not chosen for the summit will still be accessible through the RangeMe registration tool and may be reviewed by Meijer merchants again in the future as business needs change.
Visit the retailer’s Better Products page to learn more about its efforts to source local products, the Meijer True Goodness brand, and its sustainable packaging goals.
Meijer has a strong base of thousands of sustainable and clean living products. In 2021, Meijer launched its own sustainable clothing items made from recycled polyester and 100 percent organic cotton. More than 80 percent of the MTA Sport assortment in men’s, women’s and kids’, as well as more than 60 percent of the men’s Lake & Trail line, is made with at least 30 percent recycled polyester. The company’s Wave Zone men’s PFC Free line is also made with recycled polyester. Those lines use post-consumer water bottles that are ground into chips, melted into a fiber filament, and turned into fabric to make apparel.
About Meijer: Meijer is a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer that operates more than 500 supercenters, neighborhood markets and Express locations throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin. A privately-owned and family-operated company since 1934, Meijer pioneered the “one-stop shopping” concept and has evolved through the years to include expanded fresh produce and meat departments, as well as pharmacies, comprehensive apparel departments, pet departments, garden centers, toys and electronics. For additional information on Meijer, please visit www.meijer.com. Follow Meijer on Twitter at twitter.com/Meijer and twitter.com/MeijerPR or become a fan at www.facebook.com/meijer.
