Whole Foods Goes Biodiesel

Date: October 11, 2005 01:54 PM
By: Michael G. Richard, Ottawa

Whole Foods ($4.5 billion in sales last year, biggest retailer of natural and organic food in the world) has made its Midwest distribution center switch to B20 (a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% regular diesel). The delivery trucks based there service a 5 state area and burn 8,000 gallons of fuel every week.

This is only a fraction of the Whole Foods fleet, but the use of biodiesel could eventually propagate to the whole company. "Because Whole Foods operates in a relatively decentralized manner, an initiative such as this starts out regionally and then can propagate, according to a company spokesperson.

At least two other regions—the Southern Pacific and the Southwest—want to follow after the Midwest has completed the rollout to 100% usage. The Southern Pacific and Southwest regions have both agreed to have the Midwest provide a turnkey procedure for them to implement. Nationwide deployment may follow."