Meijer Plans Sustainability Summit to Source New Products
Michigan-based retailer Meijer is on the hunt for environmentally-focused products, and will host a virtual Sustainability Summit to field new items.
Held Oct. 11-13, Meijer’s event will allow the retailer to meet with suppliers with sustainable products in the food, health and beauty, everyday essentials, pets, apparel, and general merchandise categories. Certified vendors with retail-ready products can apply by Aug. 25 for consideration here.
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.
The retailer's grocery and consumable merchants are looking for vendors who participate in the Rainforest Alliance Certification Program that confirms standards on forests, climate, human rights and livelihoods. Meijer is also seeking products across all categories with sustainable packaging attributes.
"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."
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.
Meijer operates more than 500 locations throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin.