"How Sustainable and Ethical Is the Tuna at Your Supermarket?", 15 February 2023

Greenpeace released its second annual report [...] ranking 16 major U.S. supermarkets on the environmental and human rights bonafides of their tuna supply chains. It turns out that only one of them managed to score higher than an F. However, the purpose of the report isn’t to shame retailers but rather to give shoppers the tools they need to encourage them to do better. 

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Based on their answers, the companies were given a score for both the environmental sustainability and human rights compliance of their policies. This year, 11 out of 16 companies agreed to participate in the survey. These were Ahold Delhaize, Albertsons, Aldi, Giant Eagle, Hy-Vee, The Kroger Company, Meijer, Southeastern Grocers, Sprouts Farmers Market, Target and Whole Foods. Costco, HEB, Publix, Walmart and Wegmans did not take the surveys, and so Greenpeace ranked them based on research into their publicized policies, inventory, working group membership and other details. 

Overall, the survey results revealed that none of the companies are doing particularly well, especially when it comes to human rights. Indeed, none of the stores earned a passing grade in this category. 

Aldi U.S. was the only company to receive an all-around passing score of 61.51 percent, the equivalent of a D. This broke down into a 70 percent for environmental policies and a 56 percent for human rights. 

Only Whole Foods — which came in third overall — also had a passing score on the environment at 75 percent. 

Rounding out the top five scores were Ahold Delhaize in the No. 2 slot, Hy-Vee in fourth place and Target in fifth. The worst scoring companies were Meijer at 16 percent, Wegman’s at 17 percent, Southeastern Grocers at 18 percent, Publix at 19 percent and H-E-B at 24 percent. But for everyone, the takeaway message is that more work needs to be done.

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