Meijer – Ubaid Haroon – 2018

Goals

Meijer is a big-box retailer that operates six food manufacturing facilities, five distribution centers, and more than 240 supercenters and gas stations across six states. The company asked EDF Climate Corps fellow Ubaid Haroon to help quantify Meijer’s historical GHG emissions as far back as available data would allow, forecast future emissions for the next five years, and propose a corporate GHG intensity reduction goal.

Solutions

Haroon worked with the company’s various teams and utility providers to gather data on total energy consumption, emissions data for refrigeration and logistics activities, future energy efficiency projects, and projected future growth. With these data, he was able to forecast changes in Meijer’s GHG intensity. Based on the results, Haroon proposed a GHG intensity reduction goal that was ambitious, yet achievable. This work was essential to setting a defensible company emissions goal that could be incorporated into Meijer’s business strategy. His recommendations included:

• Implementing the Five-Year Engineering Plan of energy efficiency projects

• Evaluating renewable energy

• Understanding Scope 3 emissions

• Evaluating load-shedding procedures at refrigerated and cooled facilities

Potential Impact

Haroon’s recommendations enable Meijer to make a public GHG intensity reduction goal, which can further drive carbon-reduction activities.