Time for a retail revolution
When you see the chief executives of five world-famous companies debating how to make the broader retail sector more sustainable, you realise a quiet revolution is underway.
The senior figures in question were the bosses of Tesco, Coca Cola, Unilever, SC Johnson and Reckitt Benckiser, responsible for combined sales of well in excess of £100 billion. The stage was the Sustainable Consumption Institute event –‘Consumers: the key to a low carbon world’ – held at the Royal Society in London this month.
These leaders acknowledged the major role their companies can play in helping their customers to lead more sustainable lives. They also talked about their responsibility to lead and to educate consumers – quite a change from the “we only do what consumers tell us” rhetoric that we might have heard in the past.
Sir Terry Leahy, Tesco’s chief executive, used the event to announce bold new climate change ambitions for the world’s third largest retailer.
Three commitments particularly caught my eye.
Firstly, Tesco will become a zero carbon business by 2050 (at the latest) – an aspiration that we would encourage others to strive for (obviously the earlier the better).
Secondly, it will reduce the carbon impact of the products in its supply chain by 30% by 2020 – meaning it will have to collaborate much more closely with key suppliers.
And thirdly, the retailer will work with consumers to help them move towards zero carbon homes – a big potential prize.
We have to rewind to early 2007 to see Tesco’s first big announcements on climate change – at the ‘Green Grocer’ event, hosted by Forum for the Future. It was there that Sir Terry first talked about the need for a new revolution in green consumption and pledged to set up the Sustainable Consumption Institute.
It was one of a flurry of bold retailer announcements on sustainability at the time, including Marks & Spencer’s Plan A and Wal-Mart’s Sustainability 360.
Since then many of our leading retailers, including Tesco, have taken some fantastic steps, particularly on climate change. In the grand scheme of things though, it’s been more of a rumble, than the revolution we really need.
Sir Terry reiterated the rationale for a revolution in green consumption at the recent event: “For Tesco [it]… is a fantastic opportunity: once and for all to break the link between consumption and emissions, and in doing so to satisfy a new consumer need, and grow our business.”
Tesco deserves praise for raising the bar, as the need for action is growing ever more urgent. That’s why we’ll be pushing our retail and branded manufacturing partners hard next year on enabling, informing and encouraging consumers to make sustainable purchasing decisions. We need more bold ambitions and – critically - we need to see them realised, in order to achieve a real green retail revolution.
Comments
Looking at the opening paragraph there were four major consumer goods manufacturing companies there and one retailer. Did only Terry Leahy say anything?
Fair point. The reason most of the blog focuses on Tesco is that Terry Leahy did a longer keynote speech where he outlined new commitments on climate change. The other four CEOs joined him in a Panel discussion later, but they only spoke for a few minutes each, before it turned into a Q&A session. Whilst they had some interesting stuff to say and were talking about sustainable consumption in ways they might not have done in the past, they weren't setting out new targets or ambitions - hence my focus on Tesco. I'd like to have done a review of the whole day, but couldn't have done it justice in a short blog I'm afraid.
My veiw of a secure sustainable future, is local based initiatives, (not a continuation of mass market consumption, orchestrated by large multinational companies, who cannot reduce transport, packaging and overheads costs; to meet the best likely practice for sustainable living). Are local initiatives part of 'the forums' equation?
Local production; local goods and services, local jobs and local capital & assets use; employed to meet the needs of everyone in a locality; happily, healthily and environmentally secure.
This diversity of self-reliance across Britain (if encouraged by forum for the future), will reduce the impact of human activity on the environment, to the least possible exploitative level.
I advocate 'land for all', deals with farmers - free growing patches & natural farmland burials, for everyone, to cut greenhouse gases and keep land permaculturally productive.
Richard,
Thanks very much for your comment. You make some very valid points. My original blog was simply highlighting some positive steps that Tesco and others are taking, and challenging them to go further & faster.
I would absolutely agree that local based initiatives have a vital role to play in a secure sustainable future. Diversity in our high streets is very important. I also agree with your point that we can't carry on with the "pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap" philosophy that many retailers rely on. Hence we did some initial work funded by Sainsbury last year looking at 'business models for sustainable consumption' (see retail page of the website for more info) and we're looking to build on that next year. Keep an eye out on our website early next year for more planned work in that area.
My personal take is that the debate's always been very polarised - hence the need for pragmatism. I do think that we should harness the undoubted size and influence of major retailers & branded manufacturers to drive positive change, internally, with suppliers and with consumers. BUT I believe they need to do it in a way that respects local communities and local suppliers, who absolutely need to be part of the solution. Feel free to drop me an e-mail if you want to discuss this further.
Best
Dan
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