Civic News

Greener Grocer Wanted: Asking Whole Foods to be Environmentally Responsible

Whole Foods Market has been hailed as a great retailing success story. What began as a single natural foods store in Austin, Texas in 1980 has grown to more than 270 gourmet supermarkets with 36,000 employees and sales of more than $6 billion annually.

The company was a darling of Wall Street through the first half of this decade, and also earned a reputation for excellence, debuting at #12 in the 2006 edition of Harris Interactive’s widely respected corporate reputation survey, and rating even higher in Fortune magazine’s ranking of the nation’s best employers.

But the road has turned bumpy for Whole Foods in the past year and a half. The company’s high-flying stock price was cut in half as investors grew concerned with Whole Foods’ rapid expansion. The Federal Trade Commission opposed the company’s plan to acquire Wild Oats, Whole Foods’ biggest rival, on anti-trust grounds (a court recently allowed that deal to proceed, but the FTC is appealing). And, in a major blow to the company’s reputation, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey was forced to make a public apology after he was unmasked as the anonymous online commenter “Rahodeb,” who had frequently promoted Whole Foods’ stock – and denigrated its competitors – in a popular Yahoo! Finance forum.

Whole Foods’ first foray into Brooklyn has traveled a similar up-and-down path. Though many Brooklynites were excited when Whole Foods announced plans to open its first Brooklyn market along the banks of the Gowanus Canal, residents of Park Slope, Gowanus, and Carroll Gardens have grown concerned as they have learned more details about Whole Foods’ plans.

The company intends to erect a 64,000 square-foot store at the corner of Third Street and Third Avenue, served by 420 parking spaces on the building’s roof and in a separate three-story garage. But rather than ask for a zoning variance — which would require a public hearing — Whole Foods plans to construct nearly 90 percent of the building below grade, on a heavily polluted brownfields site prone to flooding and that in some places lies less than three feet above sea level.

Whole Foods’ plans have many neighborhood groups concerned.

The environmental group Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus (FROGG) has urged Whole Foods to cap the heavily polluted plot and build above grade, and has appealed to New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation to oppose the current plan.

Also, more than 1,300 people have signed Park Slope Neighbors’ (PSN) petition asking Whole Foods to take steps to encourage future customers to leave their cars at home when shopping, and urging the corporation to replace the rooftop parking lot with a green roof or solar panels. In the petition and in a letter sent to Whole Foods, the grassroots activist group argues that the green roof, first suggested by Brooklyn environmental activists Marni Horwitz and Madalyn Warren, would mesh well with the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation’s desire to turn the Canal basin into a “green zone,” and would also please advocates of the Mayor’s NYC2030 plan.

Last month, the Park Slope Civic Council voted unanimously to encourage Whole Foods to consider the recommendations in the PSN letter and petition. The Civic Council has asked local elected officials to reach out to Whole Foods on the community’s behalf.

Whole Foods so far has been largely unresponsive, beyond releasing statements like the one printed in this issue.

In that statement, issued in response to questions raised in this article, Whole Foods says that a green roof like the one planned for its new store in Madison, Wisconsin, “isn’t feasible” in Brooklyn, but does not specify why. Further, while several Whole Foods stores generate a substantial share of their electricity from solar panels, the statement does not explain why there are no plans for solar panels at the Third Avenue store.

Also, the statement makes no mention of delivery and shuttle services, or of providing ample bike parking — suggestions presented to Whole Foods by PSN as easily implemented and sensible ideas that would help cut back on unnecessary car trips.

According to figures that Whole Foods presented to the Civic Council at a meeting last January, the company expects that an average of 1,500 drivers will visit the store each day — more than 500,000 car trips per year.

PSN contends that the 420 parking spaces that Whole Foods is planning are about 100 too many, and that such over-supply will only encourage more shoppers to drive in a neighborhood where traffic is already considered a major and growing problem — and one that will be greatly exacerbated if Atlantic Yards and the Nets arena are built.

By comparison, the 52,000-square-foot Fairway Market in Red Hook, which is much less accessible to public transportation than the Whole Foods site, has just 300 parking spaces. The new 71,000-square-foot Whole Foods in the Bowery section of Manhattan has no on-site parking at all.

The 420-car parking lot at the Brooklyn store, in an urban area where just 40 percent of households own vehicles, would be 20 percent bigger than the 350-car lot planned for a new store in Darien, Connecticut, a suburban community where 97 percent of households own vehicles.

In hoping that Whole Foods will make environmentally responsible and community friendly revisions to its Brooklyn plans, we draw inspiration from the corporation’s own description of its “Core Values” and from its “Declaration of Interdependence.” The company describes a commitment to “Wise Environmental Practices” and “Community Citizenship” that we would like to see all corporations strive toward — and that we hope Whole Foods itself will emulate in its new Brooklyn store.
- Eric McClure

In addition to being Civic Council treasurer, Eric McClure is a founder of Park Slope Neighbors.

Whole Foods’ “Core Values” and “Declaration of Interdependence” may be read on the company’s web site, wholefoodsmarket.com.

Go to parkslopeneighbors.org to read the PSN petition and letter.