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12:58

Kathy Loftus -

Hi I’m Kathy Loftus. Thanks for joining us today. Just so you know who you are talking with, here’s a quick overview for you to read while we wait for folks to join the live blog.

I’ve been with Whole Foods Market for three years, coordinating strategic energy procurement/management, maintenance best practices and green store development. Working in energy and environmental management for 20 years, I’m active in EPA and DOE programs and have been a resource for the United States Green Building Council on LEED for Retail. I’ve participated on the 2005 New England Roundtable on Federal Renewable Energy Policy and served for 8 years on the Advisory Committee of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust. I’m currently on the board of Clean Air-Cool Planet and a member of the Massachusetts Large Scale Retail Solar and Energy Efficiency Task Force.

Lee Kane, our North Atlantic regional Eco-Czar-green mission specialist and local forager, has been with Whole Foods Market, and he is with me to chat with you about ways we can keep Earth Day going all year long. While we know all the nitty-gritty details about what Whole Foods Market has done as a company with some awesome green initiatives, unless we hear otherwise from you we’ll focus this time as a conversation about what changes we’ve individually made for Earth Day and how we can extend the attention to year round.

1:01

Kathy Loftus -

So let’s start this out talking about what we’ve done differently because of Earth Day. Did you make a special commitment of some kind? For example, I joined my town's sustainability group and purchased a recycling bin to be located at the nearby public lighthouse park (where I typically walk my dogs and pick up trash and recyclables on a regular basis)!

1:02	[Comment From Terry R.] Big fan of Whole Foods, and I have been enjoying learning more about your company's green efforts from reading the blog. You're doing a lot! Just wondering why, as a company, you're not more frequently recognized for your efforts than some of your competitors.

1:04	Kathy Loftus - Thank you so much. We all work at this together and appreciate your support. We love it when other people recognize us and don't spend a lot of time promoting it but continue to work hard at what we do.

1:04	[Comment From Bryna C] Recently started shopping at Whole Foods when I saw the special Oprah did on how animals we consume are treated. I wonder if we need more "outlets" like Oprah educating people on this stuff?

1:05	Kathy Loftus - We do need outlets, and just this morning I spoke at my son's school and part of our discussion was around animal compassion standards and the work we are doing in that arena.

1:05	[Comment From goodrob13] I've been posting eco tips on Twitter, not just on Earth Day, but every day. I hope people notice.

1:06

[Comment From Jason Clement]
Jason here from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, DC. To celebrate Earth Day, we visited a local non-chain hardware store to come up with 10 things under $10 people can do to go green at home. Here's the link: http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/sustainability/earth-day/green-tips.html

1:06

[Comment From Robin Burton]
Hi Kathy. This is Robin. I work at the Whole Foods Market store in Superior, Colorado, and am the Green Mission representative for the Rocky Mountain Region. Thanks for asking for examples of environmental actions we've taken. This year for Earth Day I built a wooden box for worm composting and set up a vermiculture system with two pounds of worms. These worms eat their weight in food scraps per day so this new herd of worms will now eat my garbage and produce high quality compost.

1:06	[Comment From Guest] How will Whole Foods reduce the plastic containers n the prepared foods department? and the food bars?

1:08	Kathy Loftus - We are evaluating compostable and alternative containers in all areas of the store, and we currently have them in our salad bars and in some produce and meat departments (thanks to Lee and the work the regional green mission specialists and our Global VP of non-perishables.

1:08

[Comment From Jody Quintana, NC MRY]
I went to a Sustainable Cities Symposium in my city of Monterey, on Earth Day. I heard about how cities and counties in the state of CA are taking an inventory of their energy, water, and other usage, as well as their waste production. This inspired me to take an inventory of my ecological footprint, which I have not yet done.

1:08	[Comment From goodrob13] To Guest: regarding plastic containers, the Whole Foods Markets in NYC have paper/cardboard containers at the salad bars, not plastic.

1:08	[Comment From Jannine T.] I traded in my v-6 for a 4-cylinder vehicle to save gas (and money). I'm very happy with the results of both!!

1:08	[Comment From nybe] What would be a good way to promote the ideas of 'Earth Day' everyday to the masses? It seems like all the hoopla dies down pretty quick from a large scale perspective.

1:09	Kathy Loftus - What do you guys all think about keeping Earth Day every day?

1:09

[Comment From susannah]
Hi, I work at Whole Foods Market central offices. After Whole Foods Market discontinued plastic bags at the register on Earth Day 2008, we received many comments from people saying they needed them for pet waste. It made me realize there must be another way that at least I could do. I got a pet-waste composter for my back yard and never throw it in the trash (or use a plastic bag) any more!

1:09	[Comment From Guest] yeah the store i work at in virginia has changed to recyclable material for salad bar

1:10	[Comment From goodrob13] To nybe: I talked to Ed Begley Jr. on my podcast and asked him the same question. He said, "To get people to be eco-friendly every day, show them how much money they'll save."

1:10	[Comment From nybe] I recently bought a 2002 VW Golf TDI and am running B99 biofuel. It seems like a small part, I would rather ride my bike everyday, but I am trying.

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