2009 Environment and Sustainability Award: UNFI
Jan 1, 2010 12:00 PM
Under the leadership of longtime environmental advocate Michael Funk, UNFI is working to address everything from climate change to GMOs
In 1976, Earth Day was just six years old; the terms “carbon footprint” and “GMO” had yet to enter the American lexicon; and one of the few people talking about alternative energy was a peanut farmer and presidential candidate named Jimmy Carter. To Michael Funk, a tie-dye-wearing, pony-tailed 21-year-old, “environmentalism” was mostly about keeping pesticides out of the environment. To support that goal, Funk began driving fresh, organic produce from farms to stores in Sacramento, California, using his own 16-foot truck and doing business out of his garage. “I was really more an environmentalist than a health food advocate,” said Funk, now 55.
Today, Funk's once-fledgling company has evolved into United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI), the U.S. natural products industry's distribution juggernaut, which transacts $3.6 billion in annual sales, employs 7,000 people and 500 trucks, and is respectably ranked No. 634 on Fortune Magazine's list of the nation's largest companies. Yet, despite its transformation from hippie upstart to corporate giant, the company has not only stuck to its environmental roots, but it has also expanded them to reflect the nation's evolving environmental worries, launching programs to address everything from climate change to genetically modified foods. UNFI's longtime commitment to preserving the environment earned the company a 2009 Environment and Sustainability Award from Nutrition Business Journal.
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