Values and Mission in Action

These are just a few of the ways we walk our talk:

• Every three years, we hold a company-wide vote for team members to choose the health and benefits package they want the company to offer.
• Over 90% of stock options awarded go to non-executive team members.
• A salary cap limits cash compensation (wages plus bonuses) to 19 times the average of all full-time team members employed during the year. Co-founder and CEO John Mackey recently reduced his annual salary to $1, with future compensation from his personal stock options going to our two not-for-profit foundations.
• Our financial books are open to team members, including our annual individual compensation report listing gross pay for all team members — including executives.
• We have established a Global Team Member Emergency Fund for the benefit of team members throughout the company who become affected by major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.
• We regularly donate food and other products to support organizations such as homeless shelters, food banks, schools and others.
• We support local growers and vendors by providing a marketplace for their goods and by doing what we can to contribute to the success of these growers and the local economy. Our Locally Grown initiative creates local jobs and ensures the continuation of independent farming and the diversity of land use.
• Our Green Mission Task Force promotes environmentally sound practices for every aspect of store and facility operations.
• We are in the process of converting our distribution fleets to bio-diesel. Our goal is to move toward non-GMO bio-diesel as it becomes available.
• We purchase renewable energy credits (RECs) to offset 100% of the electricity used in all of our locations (retail and non-retail) in North America. In 2006 we won a Green Power Partnership award from the EPA for supporting the development of renewable energy.
• Our not-for-profit Animal Compassion Foundation helps producers evolve their practices for raising farm animals naturally and humanely.
• Our Whole Planet Foundation is a not-for-profit group charged with combating poverty and promoting self-sufficiency in third-world countries that supply us with some of the products we sell.