DALLAS -- Combining its environmentally friendly building methods with its desire to assist employees with their health and wellness goals, Sheetz Inc. built an employee fitness facility designed to promote those related aspirations.
For their efforts, CSP awarded the Altoona, Pa.-based convenience store chain its CRU Award for Health and Wellness at its Convenience Retailing University (CRU) conference in Dallas last week.
Watch the video below. Courtney Williams, prepared foods sales manager for Sheetz, accepted the award for the company.
For many chains, upfront costs with uncertain return on investment deter such projects. In other words, there's a risk that being first doesn't necessarily mean finishing first. Such concerns have never slowed Sheetz from doing the right thing, according to CSP officials who gave the award to Courtney Williams, prepared foods sales manager for Sheetz before about 500 conference attendees last week.
The 490-store convenience retailer opened its Center for Shwellness in Claysburg, Pa., in 2012, with the 12,000-square-foot health-and-wellness facility providing Sheetz's 14,000 employees with a spot to work out, get a checkup and maintain an important work-health balance.
"We decided to build the center as an employee benefit," said Ryan Sheetz, director of brand development and sales. "But it's easy to blur the lines between that and sustainability and environmental responsibility."
Sheetz officials saw the center as an opportunity to weave in the ideas of health and wellness with its existing best practices of building environmentally responsible structures.
The facility has a quarter-mile walking track surrounding it and houses work-out equipment and space for exercise. It also serves as a resource for employees to receive healthcare and wellness education.
Recently, 30 employees participated in a bike-to-work day, aimed at raising awareness about fitness and environmental responsibility, Sheetz said.
Continuing on its mission to improve the health and wellness of their employees and their customers, Sheetz was among the first in the convenience industry to join the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA).
The Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization works with private companies to combat childhood obesity. Founded in 2010, PHA focuses on making healthier choices more affordable and accessible to families and children. Partners such as Sheetz commit to specific actions they will take to improve the health of the nation's youth. Sheetz made a two-year commitment to provide nutritious meal options across its 475 stores.
PHA assures commitments are kept by monitoring and reporting publicly on the progress its partners are making.
"Part of our DNA is about being connected … to the communities we serve," Sheetz said. "So it makes sense for us to carry out the Sheetz mission and Sheetz operations trying to be responsible as possible so that we can have a holistic, positive impact on the environment and communities in which we serve."
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