The Global Green Retail Race Is On

Crisis

Retailers around the world are embarking on numerous initiatives to solidify their foothold in the green retail race.

United States-based internet company EBay Inc. has committed to a Green Team Challenge that will see it protect one acre of rainforest for the first 250,000 people who will reuse their online auctions.

In tandem with the project, the world’s biggest online auction and shopping Web site Ebay.com has unveiled a new green shopping hub that will help consumers find millions of green products available on the site.

It aims to encourage consumers to reflect over three simple ecofriendly shopping tips. First, the company suggests choosing items that are pre-owned, vintage or refurbished.

EBay (Nasdaq:EBAY) also recommends items that are made from sustainable materials. Finally, the company recommends that shoppers look for items that will save them energy or reduce their use of some other resource.
“We at EBay are constantly looking for ways to show our community of 90 million users that their shopping decisions can have real environmental impact,” said Amy Skoczlas Cole, director of the EBay green team.

Through the campaign, Ebay will collaborate with Team Earth, a unique coalition of nongovernment organizations, private sector companies and individuals organized by Conservation International.

The company will also work with Cooler Inc., a company that specializes in carbon footprint calculations, to determine the carbon footprint of reusing products and compare these with newly purchased items.

Throughout March and April, the company’s EBay Giving Works program will help in generating funds to aid environmental organizations extend the impact of the campaign. A series of charity auctions is expected to benefit green nonprofit organizations and causes, including the Nature Conservancy, Make it Right Foundation, which is helping families rebuild eco-friendly homes in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, and the Akanksha Fund, a nonprofit organization for less privileged children in India.

Meanwhile, Canada’s largest supermarket chain Loblaw Companies Limited plans to install solar rooftops on four of its stores in Ontario as pilot projects to demonstrate its commitment for sustainable retail.

Besides supplying the retailer’s energy needs, Loblaw’s stores in Ajax, Orleans, Toronto and Whitby will also provide green power to local communities.

“This initiative is part of Loblaw’s overall effort, through the use of renewable energy sources to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Bob Chant, vice president of Loblaw.

The Ontario Power Authority has approved more than 100 of Loblaw’s applications for rooftop solar installations on their stores through the feed-in tariff program under the Green Energy Act.

The province is known for generous feed-in tariffs between 53.9 Canadian cents and 80.2 Canadian cents (52 cents and 78 cents) per kilowatt hour under 20-year contracts. The company will plan the next phases of the projects based on the success of the initial four pilot projects.

Other related projects include sustainable construction through L.E.E.D. design standards and waste reduction programs such as efforts to divert plastic bags from landfill.

Loblaw (TSX:L) is a subsidiary of George Weston Limited (TSX:WN), a Canadian food processing and distribution company. It covers 1,036 corporate and franchised stores, 376 associate stores and 4,692 independent stores.

Back in the United States, Walmart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) set a new sustainability goal to cut 20 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its global supply chain by 2015.
The largest retailer in the world identified its army of 100,000 suppliers as the biggest sector where immediate action to reduce emissions is needed. WalMart will focus efforts to lessen emissions on product categories with the highest carbon footprint.

Walmart also requests its suppliers to reduce emissions from their products through efficient sourcing of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation and customer use. For instance, it identified its dairy suppliers as a critical sector as the dairy industry holds a significant share in the agriculture sector’s 8 percent contribution to United States’ carbon footprint.

Britain’s Marks & Spencer also plans to become the world’s most sustainable retailer by 2015 through 80 new commitments under a company-wide ecofriendly and ethical campaign dubbed Plan A.

The £50 million ($75 million) extension program aims to enhance 2.7 billion individual food, clothing and home items sold yearly across an immense 36,000 product line.

The company will also revamp their top 100 clothing factories to adopt best environmental practices by installing more efficient lighting and improving insulation to reduce energy use by at least 10 percent. The retailer will also invest in a sustainable forest program for their packaging materials.

Marks & Spencer (LSE:MKS) launched the Plan A campaign in January 2007, with 100 commitments to make the company carbon neutral and have better standards in ethical trading by 2012. The extended program calls for an additional 80 pledges that are expected to be accomplished by 2015.
Since the launch, the retailer has saved around £50 million by being more efficient and has met 46 of the original commitments with a 2012 target, said Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of Marks & Spencer.

Sustainable retail courses

To drive up more sustainable retail practices in Australia, First Impressions Resources, also known as the Australian Retail College, is offering courses open to retail¬ers from Queensland to help busi¬nesses tailor green solu¬tions to their indi¬vidual needs.

The courses aim to make sustainability part of business operations, from the life-cycle of products, sourcing energy needs from cleaner energy sources, to energy efficiency. The course is being funded by the Queensland Department of Education and Training

“Consumers are changing the way they buy things to reflect growing environmental concern. There is big demand for green products and services and people are more discerning with their dollar after the global financial crisis,” pointed out Annie Dardir, course developer.

“This debunks the myth that it is expensive to be environmentally responsible. There are different dimensions to sustainability; not just environmental and economic, but social such as using fair-trade products,” she added.