Iowa City, Iowa — In celebration of Earth Day, National Co+op Grocers (NCG) announces the release of its 2018 Advocacy and Sustainability Report, highlighting how food co-ops are working in cooperation through NCG to increase the positive environmental and social impact of the sector.
“Shoppers can see much of the value their local food co-op brings to their community, but there is so much more to the story that is not always visible,” says C.E. Pugh, Chief Executive Officer of NCG. “Through NCG, food co-ops are influencing public policy that prioritizes healthy food access programs and organic agriculture, building an inclusive economy that supports fair trade producers and improving the environmental impact and sustainability of our sector. We’re excited to share this story with our 2018 report.”
The report highlights key ways that food co-ops are expressing two cooperative principles: Cooperation among Cooperatives and Concern for Community. Through NCG, food co-ops donated more than $600,000 in 2018 to organizations pursuing activities that support food co-op values: a more sustainable food system, the fair treatment of people, a cooperative economy and a healthy environment. An additional $200,000 was raised to help rebuild cooperatives in Puerto Rico and provide flood relief for fair trade farmers in Kerala, India.
The report also highlights the strength of NCG’s Co+op Deals promotions program to increase support for products that exemplify food co-op values, like organic agriculture, fair trade and cooperatively produced goods. The program generated more than $8.3 million in fair trade sales and $11.8 million in sales of cooperatively produced goods in 2018. A Certified B Corporation, NCG also actively promotes products produced by other B Corps—with $13.5 million in sales through the program last year.
NCG’s innovative carbon offset program, Co+op Forest, offset emissions related to business travel and utilities with the planting or conservation of over 70,000 trees in 2018—bringing the total to nearly 2 million trees in the San Martin region of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest since the program’s debut in 2012.
“It’s nothing short of amazing what people can accomplish when they work together with intention and shared values,” says Allie Mentzer, NCG’s Advocacy Senior Manager. “We are proud of everything food co-ops do to protect and honor this planet and all of the diverse communities that call it home.”
About NCG
National Co+op Grocers (NCG), founded in 1999, is a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops located throughout the United States. NCG helps unify food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere. Our 145 member and associate co-ops operate more than 200 storefronts in 37 states with combined annual sales of nearly $2.1 billion. NCG is a winner of the dotCoop Global Awards for Cooperative Excellence and a certified B Corp. Find a map of NCG member and associate co-ops. To learn more about co-ops, visit www.strongertogether.coop.
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Media inquiries may be directed to Eric Davis (eric@harvest-pr.com; 612-424-7545.)