8.5

Role of the BRC

BRC’s members have highlighted the particular need for coordination and industry-level support to enable the shift to low carbon lifestyles. BRC plan to establish a working group of retailers to take forward work in this area. BRC’s role will change over the course of the implementation of the Roadmap, and to begin with could focus on two target areas:

1.   Coordinate approaches for providing climate information to customers

There is a growing body of expertise on the delivery of behaviour change campaigns influencing UK customers. Recent successes of note include WRAP delivering significant results with their food industry partners through the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, and the On Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) scheme delivering simple on pack recycling messages which help customers recycle more material correctly, more often. A key lesson from these successes is the benefit in having coordinated approaches and messages, and consistent, clear resources available to retailers and customers. 

BRC can play an important role in establishing a centre of expertise in customer communication on climate change. This might include development of messaging campaigns, sharing best practices and the development of tools for use by retailers.

2.   Support coordinated work to establish the circular economy 

The acceleration of work to establish a circular economy in the UK will be important to decarbonisation. There are a number of important initiatives in this area and important policy decisions. There is a need for a clear, united voice for the retail industry to enable circular economy decisions that drive decarbonisation. BRC can support retailer coordination with circular economy initiatives and help identify and share best practices in this area. It can provide support and advice to retailers to support implementation of new approaches and align research and development activities across the industry towards decarbonisation. It is also important that the industry has an aligned voice to ensure that proposed circular solutions enable improved decarbonisation.