Sustainability in the workplace. How can retail embrace & encourage a sustainable ethos?

It is no secret that the impact of Climate change is all around us. The Covid19 pandemic has impacted not only on our health & economies, but it has opened many people’s eyes to the links between zoonotic disease & climate change.

Therefore, we all have a responsibility to ensure that we do our part to assist in the ongoing work to avoid further climate temperature increases, remove millions of tonnes of plastics from our seas & change our consumers attitudes to how we shop.

In day’s of lore you purchased your food, clothing & lifestyle items from a local store. With the onslaught of consumerism, hypermarkets & online shopping; we can now purchase whatever we want, whenever we want. Food is no longer seasonal, clothing & lifestyle items can now be sourced globally & electrical items have become throw away commodities.

When the Covid19 pandemic was at it’s height, we all accepted & became accustomed to only essential shops being open in our local area, but still being able to order online.

As we move forward & re-open our non-essential retail, there is an opportunity build back better & to be more environmentally conscious. This applies to the retailers & us as consumers.

Here are a couple of simple ideas which can be adopted by retail outlets & consumers alike, to help contribute against climate change.

Stop using plastic bags for good. Promote bring your own or offer only sustainable paper alternatives.

Plastic bags were invented to save the planet, according to the son of Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin who created them in 1959. The bags were developed as an alternative to paper bags, which were considered bad for the environment because they resulted in forests being chopped down. (1)

Plastic bags now contribute to the 8 to 14 million tonnes of plastics which are perpetually clogging up our oceans, with some 500 billion plastic bags being used globally each year.

So, what is the solution?

In the UK we have adopted the ‘Bag for Life’ slogan for plastic bags now being sold at 10/20p at most supermarkets. However, this does not tackle the issue, as most ‘Bags for Life’ are never re-used & therefore add to the single use plastics issues we see globally.

Therefore, which UK companies are embracing the change & what are their strategies?

Morrisons are the first UK supermarket to stop using plastic carrier bags completely & will now only offer a paper alternative at 20p. The Morrisons paper bags are made in Wales from paper from sustainably managed forests & are strong enough to carry heavy weights up to 16kg.

Waitrose is currently trialling the removal of its 10p bags for life from a number of its stores with a view to rolling it out more widely. (2)

For its part, Sainsbury’s says its bags for life cost 20p to encourage customers to re-use them & are made from 100% recycled plastic. (2)

There is still a long way to go, but what still seems to be being missed by retailers, is the encouragement to bring your own shopping bag.

Again, in our grandparents & for the most part, our parents generations, you simply did not go to a retail outlet whether it be for essentials like food or for lifestyle options, without your own bag to be able to carry your items home.

Therefore, to truly embrace this, the larger corporations really do need to be seen to encourage through their advertising & in their premises the ‘bring your own bag’ ethos, rather than simply relying on a 20p charge for a plastic bag & hoping that will be enough to put consumers off purchasing them.

Consumers can buy local, purchase UK brands & keep travel emissions to a minimum.

One of the largest changes to consumers shopping behaviours during the pandemic has the been the inability to travel distances to retail outlets. This has actively encouraged local communities to start to rely on their local suppliers, green grocers, bakers & local retail outlets for their essentials.

Not only has the ‘Shop Local’ ethos helped reduce the spread of Covid19, but it has actively encouraged consumers to seek out their local suppliers & for many people, open themselves up to a wealth of purchasing opportunities they may never had previously considered.

This continuation of ‘Shopping Local’ again assists with the reduction in spread of Covid19, but also reduces emissions as many people walk or cycle to their local retail outlets, or if using their cars, have dramatically reduced their journey distances & in doing so, reduce their tailpipe emissions.

Another way consumers can help reduce overall emissions is to buy British. We have all become so very reliant on international retail, that we forget the journeys these items have to take before they appear at our doors or on the shop shelves.

Purchasing items made in the UK, means their logistics emissions will be reduced, as they are being transported within the UK & their production to consumer journey is dramatically reduced.

Written by Katy-Jane Mason for & on behalf of Virtually Smart.