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UK's sustainability drive 18 March 2008

The Great British Public is now the prime mover in the UK’s gathering sustainability drive – with the big supermarket chains pointing the way ahead.

That’s the view of Fraser Ironside – Global Business Development Director of Solihull-based carbon emissions and supply chain modelling software developers and consultants Barloworld Optimus – who says that after years of ‘hot air’ over carbon emissions, definite signs of ‘hot action’ are emerging…

“It’s not a tidal wave yet, but I‘m firmly of the opinion that 2007 will go down as the year The Great Green Message finally began to get through”.

According to Fraser Ironside who spent three weeks in China in November where among other business initiatives he headed-up a carbon optimisation presentation to the China Supply Chain Council, the most powerful influence on creating a sustainable and carbon-free society is neither the government nor ‘worthy’ organisations such as the World Wildlife Fund, or even self-regulating industries, but he says, ‘Mr and Mrs Joe Public’ who have emerged as unimpressed by top-level posing and posturing and are now actively taking matters into their own hands by demanding environmental responsibility through their purchasing choices.

“Society is changing and increased awareness among the British public has resulted in a trend of more and more consumers now buying with a more social and environmental bias than ever before” he said.

It’s a message that, he claims, has not been lost in the boardrooms of the UK’s leading companies, a move spearheaded by the supermarket chains with Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s all now competing with each other in the race not only to be, but particularly to be seen to be the ‘greenest of the green’

“After years of complacency over the issue, 2007 has witnessed a rush by companies to publish ever-more ambitious green credentials as the message hits home that businesses that are actively managing their carbon liability now will emerge with a long-term competitive advantage”.

He added that environmental responsibility is now the single most powerful key to better business and that those that have cottoned-on to the fact and switched to more energy-efficient processes and suppliers are already reaping the rewards by way of significantly enhanced goodwill, attracting more ‘environmental’ investors, and better still, public support – an element most vividly underlined at supermarket tills. 

“It all adds up to a highly positive impact on the balance-sheets with top-line growth the clear result, and the message couldn’t be clearer: if you want a head-start in business, start reducing your carbon emissions TODAY…!”

He said that despite years of talk but little positive action on climate change that’s seen a quadrupling in extreme weather conditions in the past 10 years, history could well pinpoint the turning point to Asda parent group Wal-Mart’s ‘Sustainability 360’ initiative unveiled earlier this year.

Says Fraser Ironside, “…it’s my view that that single initiative may well prove to be the ‘wake-up call’ for thousands of companies worldwide to actively get up and do something about reducing energy consumption and emissions, to improve energy efficiencies and thereby to gain clearly-measurable advantages over their competitors.

He says that Asda group’s ambitious plans to work with suppliers to reduce packaging by 5% by 2013 has hit home with its suppliers and that the scheme could well emerge as ‘the spark that ignites the flame’.

This year the company went on public record as having taken the most determined steps yet to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, with stated aims of sending zero waste to landfill by 2010 and to deliver absolute reductions in packaging weight by end of March 2010.  

Already, the company claims to have reduced annual road miles by the equivalent to 34 trips to the moon and back (effectively, more than 16m miles a year) and to have reduced its carbon emissions by more than 34,000 tons.  

Other Asda initiatives include switching long distance freight movements to rail – effectively taking 22 million miles off the roads since 2002; purchasing a fleet of double-deck trailers in a bid to save 2 million road miles a year; reducing empty running between stores and DCs through wide-ranging collaboration with suppliers and other transport operators; and embarking on ‘a clean engine’ transport policy significantly improving both fuel efficiency and carbon emissions.

Though Tesco – who this year teamed up with The University of Manchester in a £25 million investment to bring together the world's leading experts to tackle climate change and help deliver a revolution in green consumption – claims that its transport fleet accounts for under a sixth of its carbon footprint, the company says that it has made ‘substantial progress’ in reducing its carbon impact – cutting the amount of CO2 emitted to deliver a case of goods by 10%.    Additionally, the company plans to extend that figure to 50% over the next five years, to switch from road to rail for transporting goods from its Daventry depot to Scotland and to continue its environmental stores initiative reckoned to reduce carbon emissions by 60% compared with standard stores. A switch to electric vans for the Tesco.com home delivery fleet is also reckoned to save 100 tonnes of CO2 a year, as well as the 6,000 customer car journeys each van saves annually.

Sainsbury’s, meanwhile, says that they are working towards meeting their target of a 5% reduction in packaging relative to turnover by 2010. The chain’s compostible packaging initiative means 150 million plastic trays and bags will disappear – saving 4,010 thousand tonnes of fossil fuel (3,550 tonnes of plastic) from output alone every year, as well as reducing rubbish collected for landfill.

Already, they say, 90% of organic produce packaging is recyclable, reusable or compostible, and the chain is also planning to reduce the amount of packaging used on fruit and vegetables by 25% and to switch to recyclable, reusable or compostable packaging on 50% of fruit and vegetables by next May.

Says Fraser Ironside: “Reducing carbon now forms an integral part of the supply chain planning process and businesses have begun to realize that carbon reduction is the means to not only protect their existing customer base but also to achieve both top-line and bottom-line growth. Alongside cost and service level, carbon emissions have always been there, but until recently businesses have not had the means or the inclination to factor them in. 

“But with the technology now available, planners have the ability to take supply chain management to the next level by making supply chain decisions socially responsible while simultaneously fuelling or even driving research into more energy-efficient ways of doing business”.  

He added: “…the simple fact is that it has to happen – by whatever means – and if the reason is purely for commercial security rather than a genuine wish to conserve our resources, well that’s fine too, because ultimately the end justifies the means.

“Either way, companies need to understand that there are substantial cost and carbon savings to be made by redesigning their supply chains, and it’s my genuine belief that 2007 will go down as the year that the corner was at least approached, if not actively turned.

“The technology is there, there’s a growing will for it to happen and the winners will be those that harness the power.   2009 could prove to be too late” he said.