Sustainability Practices

Coastal Sunbelt is committed to operating our business in an environmentally responsible manner and fostering sustainable development through the promotion of local farms and internal green initiatives. 

We love local.

Coastal Sunbelt was among the first in the Mid-Atlantic region to actively support local family owned farms, orchards, and dairy farms. Supporting local producers not only decreases the time from field to fork, but also reduces our food carbon footprint. 

  • We collaborate with our local growers to plan for upcoming plantings and harvest.
  • We offer backhaul options to our famers, which reduces our carbon footprint and allows our growers to focus on what they do best – caring for their land and crops.
  • Coastal Sunbelt is on the board of Future Harvest CASA, and an active supporter of their small farm mentoring organization in the Chesapeake region. 
Veggies
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We bleed blue, except when we’re green.

Our 330,000 square foot, state-of-the-art distribution center is 4x more energy efficient than our previous facility. Significant R-value improvement of building insulation, motion sensor LED lights, and variable speed motors all contribute to this savings. Our water consumption is down 50% and still dropping as low flow systems and practices are implemented, and we compost produce trimmings from our fresh cut manufacturing facility to send them to farmers who produce clean, organic fertilizer.  

Reduce

We utilize digital technology versus paper wherever possible.

Reuse

We repurpose and reuse paper as secondary packaging materials for multi-use before recycling.

Recycle

We recycle remaining cardboard (50 tractor-trailer loads per year), paper, wax boxes, plastic, electronic, metal, batteries and wooden pallets; we maintain over 90% recycling of major facility inputs.