Sustainability and Impact



Creating a Better Future

As the largest wholesale food distributor in North America, we are committed to delivering value to our shareholders while also fostering long-term sustainability in every aspect of our business. Our sustainability strategy, Better for All, is designed to drive meaningful impact outcomes, while simultaneously ensuring business efficiencies and creating shared value for our stakeholders.

Our Impact Across the Value Chain

UNFI serves as a conduit in the food value chain, connecting our vast network of suppliers and customers and supporting their sustained growth. Our stakeholder-focused sustainability strategy, detailed in our recent 2024 Impact Report, unlocks efficiencies through collaboration across the business and creates shared value across the supply chain.

Read the latest report

Upstream

Our work upstream—collaborating with suppliers and partners involved in growing, making, and moving products—is integral to our commitment to sustainability and fostering ethical practices throughout our supply chain.

Learn more about our upstream impact strategy

Operations

Our operations refers to the activities at our physical locations, how we support our associates, and our ability to receive, store, and move food while maintaining safety and integrity.

Learn more about our operations impact strategy

Downstream

We are committed to ensuring that our impact downstream – from waste and recycling initiatives to community development – is positive, intentional, and sustainable.

Learn more about our downstream impact strategy

Integrating Impact into Business Strategy

We integrate oversight of our sustainability strategy with our business strategy, creating a system of values-aligned governance structures to ensure accountability and transparency.

Learn more on our investor relations site

Our 6 Business-Aligned Focus Areas

Safety

We are focused on providing safe conditions for our associates and achieving the highest standards of food safety.

Sourcing

We continuously collaborate with suppliers to promote responsible business, including no-deforestation, inclusion, and regenerative and organic farming.

Inclusion and Wellbeing

We aim to provide a holistic and inclusive lens to our five pillars of associate well-being (physical, emotional, financial, career, and community).

Climate

UNFI is investing in efficiency, electrification, and optimization in our operations, and in regeneration along our value chain, to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions footprint.

Community

We support our communities through associate volunteerism, strategic grantmaking and impact investing, educational resources, and transparent collaboration with customers and retailers.

Waste

We seek to reduce waste and excess food in our operations and across our value chain, including as a result of damaged and misplaced products.

Join Us to Build a Better Food System

From growers to warehouse associates, from truck drivers to community grocers, we invest in programs and partnerships that build better food systems and add value at every link in the chain.

  • Climate Action Hub 

    Climate Action Hub 

    Through UNFI’s Climate Action Hub, we encourage our partners to learn from one another and expert practitioners to scale climate solutions across the food system.

    Learn more about Climate Action Hub

  • UNFI Foundation

    UNFI Foundation

    The UNFI Foundation provides grant funding to nonprofits, empowering community change-makers to create a more sustainable and equitable food system.

    Learn more about UNFI Foundation

  • Inclusive Procurement Program

    Inclusive Procurement Program

    UNFI’s Inclusive Procurement Program is a proactive business process providing diverse suppliers equal access to purchasing opportunities.

    Learn more about our inclusive procurement program

  • Inclusion and Wellbeing

    Inclusion and Wellbeing

    We continually evolve our policies, resources, and associate-led resource groups to ensure we are building an inclusive, high-performing culture that focuses on safety and operational excellence and inspires everyone to reach their full potential.

    Learn more about our careers

A Part of Our Mission Since the Beginning

Our stakeholder-focused sustainability strategy has long been a part of UNFI's success, unlocking efficiencies through collaboration across the business, and is key to our company purpose: Better Food. Better Future. We remain focused on providing more people, customers, and communities with Better Food. At the same time, UNFI has evolved into a company that delivers so much more than Better Food. We also strive to create a Better Future for associates, customers, suppliers, communities, and shareholders.

Learn more about our impact