Communication of origen of fair-trade products

Yesterday in our article we mentioned the importancy of the communication to your customer that your store a green store is and how which measurements your company take to make it green(er). The same accounts for fair-trade products, where do they come from and how are they produced.

One good example of communication of origen of fair-trade products is the English company Chippindale Foods. This retailer offers full egg traceability via their website www.wheresyoursfrom.com. Every egg in the supermarket is foreseen of a tracking code. When the clients types in the code into their website, it gives full information on the origen of the egg. Furthermore there are menu suggestions and information on the production of "green" eggs.

www.jdv-trc.blogspot.com

What are the green effects and advantages of online shopping?

In an article in the Guardian we could read a topic from Lucy Siegle about the green effect and advantages of shopping online. It sound very environmental friendly to do your shopping from the computer, but is this really true?

In the United Kingdom they expect the online Shopping to grow up to 21,3 billion pounds in 2011, a growth with almost 9 billion pounds. Some people do their shopping with the computer, because they consider it to be green, less transport and less shopping bags. There have been several studies on this topic.

One of these studies goes back to 2000 when Webvan, a big US onliner retailer, when they concluded that wider adoption of online shopping would not result into environmental profits, another study in 2002 of US book retailing did not see greater energy savings when buying online.

One of the most recent studies is the study of Carnegie Mellon University, where they concluded that shopping online via resulted in a decrease of 35 per cent energy consumption and CO2 emissions than the traditional retailer (where they loose energy because of the open doors of the store and bad refrigeration furniture for example).

This effect is caused by the save of the driving to the stores and for example less receipts. But both ways to do your shopping need the transportation to get it to the distribution centers, stores or at home. We can now see more and more retailers who introduce electricity home-delivery cars like the Spanish supermarket chain Condis or the Eco-Truck of Delhaize in Belgium where the route is better planned and the load is bigger to save extra kilometers.

Online shopping may prove marginally more green in terms of energy saving but we see retailers more and more take measurements to save energy, reduce CO2 emissions and acting green.

www.jdv-trc.blogspot.com

Green retailing guide for retailers

What are the advantages and opportunities for a retailer in green retailers? Where do they need to think of and which measurerement they can apply now? A small guide into green retailing.

Suppliers
Some important questions retailers need to think about when they choose a supplier looping at the environmental benefits of this supplier and his products.

What kind of company is your supplier, how are their production methods, are they looping for ways to reduce pollution and garbage and are they reducing the level of energy and water?

Where is your supplier located? What does this mean for the pollution of the transport from the factory to the distribution center and finally the supermarket? This is a difficult paradox, once a company decided to quit all the African products from their assortment to reduce the level of transportation and emissions of gases, on the other hand this decision resulted into a lot of difficulties of the farmers and suppliers in Africa.

What happens with the product after use of this product? What is the level of garbage? Can this be re-used? Can it be recycled?

Consumers
Communicate with your clients, make sure that your claims can be proved! If you say to reduce the level of plastic bags, reduction of CO2 make sure it happens and very important make it understandable for the consumers.

Communicate how things are measured and what the effects on the environment are. Display these environmental friendly products on an important place, support them with labels of the environmental impacts of the products and the packaging.

Opportunities in green retail
Green retailing gives you a good opportunity to win the trust and the loyalty of the consumers. Search for the measurements you can take to get a green store: Offer reusable packaging and bags, to return it to the supplier or that the consumer can re-use it. Install energy efficient lighting and water saving devices in-store (for example rainwater installation to re-use the water). Reward your customers when they do not need a bag.
Vary the size of a bag; convenience stores can work with smaller bags than traditional supermarkets, offer different sizes.

Tell your customers and employees about your efforts to save the planet!

The advantages for the retailer
- Your customers feel good about shopping in your store
- You reduce your impact on the environment
- Your employees enjoy a better working environment
- You improve your companies “green” image
- You save and earn money

Insight in the retail of the future: the importance of green retailing

The company Accenture did a research about how the retail industry would look like in the year 2020, what are the mayor technological, socio-demographic and business trends we can export in the future of retail. Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, committed to delivering innovation.

In this research they recognize the environment to be one of the most important factor for today´s retailers. Before the retailers did not see that much the importance but consumer demands, regulations from the government and the effect of green organizations changed the world of retail.

Some of the leading retailers started the green revolution, seeking to obtain an environmental-friendly and sustainable business. Tesco for example wants to be recognized "a leader in helping to create a low-carbon economy.” Tesco for example introduced new transportation methods, invested in recycling centers and introduce to their consumers the level of carbon that every product contains and how much they can save purchasing a certain type of product.

Coop, one of the world’s largest grocery chain, is basing its product ranges on green propositions. In fact, working with products of Bio Suisse, 30 organic farming organizations and around 6.300 farms producing organic products in Switzerland.

Accenture asks itself in this report some questions about what will happen in the development in green retail, how will the environmental plan adapted into retail strategies? Premium payments for environmental-friendly products, more low-energy production, and the creation of new—higher—standards for ethical trading?

What do you think what will happen in green retail in the future months and years?

Wal-Mart Supermarkets to share the green impact of their products and services

The American supermarket giant, actual world leader in sales, wants to inform their client more on green retailing impact of their products and services. By better giving information about their products, the clients of Wal-Mart have more options to choose their preferred (green) supplier or products. To obtain this required information all the suppliers need to give an insight of the environmental effect and use of energy of their products.

In history this is the biggest impact on green retailing. The data obtained will result into a rating-system, which will be communicated on the shelves of the supermarkets.

The aim of this new environmental program is to reduce the use of energy, the reduce the level of garbage and to stimulate sustainability in retail. For the manufacturers and suppliers it has a big impact, they need to invest in obtaining the information. To better compete with their competitors and to obtain a better score on the Wal-Marts scorecard and the communication to the customers. To get the total plan operation it will take several years, the Wal-Mart concern expects everything to be ready in ten years. Experts think they can introduce it earlier, in 2011, supported by the wave of environmental measurements international retailers introduce.

An earlier measurement of Wal-Mart (the introduction of energy-efficient lamps in their assortment) had a positive effect on the environment, this green initiative already resulted into the sales of over 100 million energy-efficient lamps.

www.josdevries.eu

Supermarkets United Kingdom achieve carrier use reduction of 50% since 2006

Leading supermarkets have failed to meet a target on cutting the use of carrier bags given to customers despite Government campaigns

The amount of plastic bags used by supermarkets has dropped according to research by almost a half in the last three years. This means that retailers were very close to achieving their desired aim of cutting the use by 50%.

This measurement has been taken from leading supermarkets in the United Kingdom Tesco, Waitrose, Asda, Somerfield, Marks and Spencer and the Co-op. This announcement comes as there have been calls this week for supermarkets to be more open about the amount of carriers they use.

Last year, these seven supermarket chains signed up to a voluntary agreement with the Government to achieve a 50 per cent cut in the number of bags given out compared to 2006. In May 2006, 718 million bags were being given out - by May 2009 this had almost halved to 372 million, a reduction of 48 per cent.

Sustainability - should it be just about "green" products or should we focus on sustaining our generations?

By Kyle Howell - VIP Recruiter at NWA Green Expo

Most of the topics and discussions about Sustainability are always focused on products or services related to making products more sustainable. I have been working on planning for the 2010 NWA Green Expo and had a meeting today with a non-profit called Teen Action Support Center. This was an eye opening experience that led me to this discussion.

Sustainability is not just about the "greening" of products or our habits, but it also is about taken care of our generations to ensure they are aware and able to take care of the environment. There is always a human side to everything we do. Now, the NWA Green Expo will be partnering with the Teen Action Support Center to create an overall expo that addresses products/services for both the earth and human benefit.

I would like to know what your thoughts on this are and if you have already seen this type of partnership in action, let me know some tips on how to make it successful. Now, to advertise the expo. The expo is hosted by the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce. It will take place on April 30th - May 1st, 2010, in Bentonville, AR. I am currently trying to sign up keynote speakers, so if you know any or are aware of companies that would be willing to sponsor such speakers, please contact me at kyle.howell@wal-mart.com.