The retail sector commits to green codes of conduct
12th July 2010
By Dee Moloney
Director, LRS Consultancy
Last month the Retail Forum[1] launched a code of conduct for the retail sector to drive sustainable consumption and production. More than 20 major retailers and retail associations from across Europe have already committed to making changes to reduce their environmental footprint across the following six areas:
- Sustainable sourcing (of specific products including timber and fish)
- Waste management
- Resource efficiency
- Transport and distribution
- Communications to customers
- Reporting
The code is designed to galvanise the activities that many retailers have already started to make in relation to what they sell, how they sell and what they communicate to consumers in what Sir Terry Leachy, CEO of Tesco Plc, described as ‘the creation of mass movement in green consumption and working practice’.
Having managed the Mayor of London’s Green Procurement Code, which helps organisations to source and procure more sustainable goods and service, I am delighted to see that sustainability has become such a key agenda item for the retail sector. The Mayor’s Code, in which Marks & Spencer is an active member (as part of its “Plan A” commitments), has made significant impacts on green spend, carbon reduction and avoidance of waste to landfill during its 9 year lifespan.
I am encouraged to think that if the 80 participants who reported on their achievements in the Mayor’s Code progress review of 2009 can deliver 56,221 tonnes of CO2 emissions savings and 118,642 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill by changing their purchasing behaviour across just 30 different product categories, the impact that the retail sector can have on an international scale should be a significant step along the pathway to sustainability.
The participants in the Retail Forum have so far made over 200 commitments to make changes in stores, in distribution systems, with suppliers and partners and with their customers. And because the scope of these commitments is wider than the Mayor’s Code, which focuses on supply chains and procurement, I have high hopes for the results which will be shared in the Forum’s next annual report.
I think that similar global programmes, which include multiple retailers in a joined-up approach to achieving sustainability, represent a fantastic opportunity to reduce the environmental impact not only in their own supply chains and practices, but of their customers as well. These initiatives demonstrate that sustainable consumption is not necessarily about encouraging customers to consume less (a challenge many of us in our industry have grappled with) but enabling them to consume more responsibly - sometimes without them knowing they have done so.
The retail sector is an extremely powerful ally in the battle to achieve sustainable consumption and environmental efficiency; it represents 13% of GDP in Europe and in the UK it is estimated that £1 in every £4 or £5 is spent in Tesco alone. This demonstrates the scale of the opportunity for change that the retail sector can lead.
We all know that changing consumer behaviour is a difficult and slow process, but with consumer communications led by the retail sector could we start to see an impact on waste prevention and an increase in householder recycling?
Of course I recognise that this can come with problems: we do not have standardised recycling programmes in the UK, let alone across Europe, so getting a ‘one size fits all’ message on packaging and products which is appropriate and informative will be a challenge, although WRAP and the British Retail Consortium are promoting an on-pack recycling label that can increasingly be seen on products.
I am also interested to see how incentives programmes such as RecycleBank, which was officially launched earlier this summer in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, fit into the new retailer approach and the Code. I have heard arguments that providing incentives for good environmental behaviour can increase consumption, but is it possible that if the incentives are redeemable at retailers who have already made commitments to improve their sustainable production and consumption we may have found a new ‘closed loop’ approach to recycling and behaviour change which will enable us to reach our domestic recycling targets?
[1] A voluntary industry partnership between retailers and the European Commission
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