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Imagine it’s 2030. Business, government and civil society have together created a sustainable economy in line with the sustainable development goals. What did we do, and how did we get there?

The last few years have marked a turning point in addressing global sustainability. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are shaping discussion around critical global issues, including inequality, economic opportunity, resource scarcity, and migration. Business is emerging as an important actor on these issues, and retailers in particular are in a position to help localize the SDGs by establishing and responding to requirements across a diverse set of stakeholders - product manufacturers, consumers, governmental entities, and communities. Constraints for action can be both internal and external, for instance, insufficient institutional and financial capacity, different cross-stakeholder expectations, variance in regulatory requirements across jurisdictions. Yet, the opportunities are real, and there are examples of success from which to learn.

The Better Retail Better World campaign, coordinated by the British Retail Consortium, has identified 5 SDGs for collaborative action – SDG 8, Decent work & economic growth; SDG 10, reducing inequalities, SDG 11, sustainable cities and communities; SDG 12, responsible consumption & production; and SDG 13, climate action – a good starting point for retail focus based on the unique strengths and attributes of the industry. Still, each retailer needs to start with what is material to their organizations to make the changes they feel they have most ability to impact positively. Fashion retailers engaging with the Better Cotton Initiative, for instance, can help support farmers in achieving more sustainability in their farming practice, secure fair wages, and in turn, help enhance the quality of lives of their families.

Customers are increasingly asking retailers to demonstrate their sustainability and provide more environmentally preferable products and services, but new business models can help capture consumers’ attention in a noisy marketplace. Access- versus-ownership models, end-of-use projects, and internet-of-things, for example, provide retailers with additional opportunities to deepen relationships with their customers, retaining value of materials and enhancing the experience for consumers.

One challenge is in simplifying the complexity of the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) and concepts like the circular economy into easily understood messages. In Sept 2019, a group of leading retailers gathered for a breakout discussion about retail and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a forum hosted by UL Environment and Sustainability. Participants were invited to go “Back to the Future” – pretending that we’re in the future and have solved certain issues so that we can identify the unique strengths and attributes of retailers in helping move to that future vision. Participants were asked to contemplate the following scenario, after which the group split into two teams to brainstorm together and then tell a story about how they got to this future vision.

It is the year 2030

The UN SDG Goals have been met.

What barriers did the retail community help overcome or enablers did it help amplify that contributed to achieving this? What short- and mid-term goals helped achieve this future vision. It may be helpful to categorize your thoughts in one or more of the following ways:

  • Technological (e.g., digitization)
  • Cultural
  • Social
  • Institutional / governance (national, regional, global)
  • In my organization / outside my organization
Team 1 - Carbon and climate change vision:

It is 2030; the retail community has reduced its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels. (SDG 13)

Team 2 - Waste vision:

It is 2030; the retail community has achieved full circularity e.g., recycled content, designed for recyclability, bio-based content, designed for compostability of packaging related to own-branded products.
(SDG 11 & 12)

Key Takeaways

A few themes emerged across the discussions: the need for cross-industry and cross-value chain collaboration, a supportive and enabling regulatory environment, coherent and consistent standards, and communications and education to help consumers and business do the right thing.

Team 1: Carbon and climate change

The team acknowledged retail’s role as a demand driver for change since the largest carbon impacts are embedded in the products on their shelves. They also discussed the challenges in this role, as many products on their shelves represent complex supply chains in which retailers have limited insight and over which they have even less influence. Collaboration was key to this team’s path to the future – with manufacturers and their supply chains, with consumer advocates for change, and with policy makers who can help create the enabling environment for better action.

How do we get “back to the future”?

  • Promoting the use of low emissions technology in stores and operations
  • Highlighting sustainability stories in store and through social media
  • Lobbying government for incentives to change – not extra cost in business!
  • Encouraging suppliers to provide locally sourced goods
  • Encouraging suppliers to reduce emissions themselves
  • Promoting packaging re-design
  • Embracing consumer activism on climate change

What kind of support was needed to get this vision?

  • Grid needs decarbonizing to support in store/operational GHG footprint reduction
  • Support for supplier and product transformation

Team 2: Waste

The waste team, similarly, saw challenges in understanding their impacts and span of control on this issue – for example, defining circularity in terms of a retail business. For that reason, they saw collaboration, too, as instrumental to achieving circularity in product packaging, but in this case they saw a greater need for intra-industry collaboration, including advocacy around “slow fashion”! They also recognized the need for enablement tools – for consumers and suppliers – and an enabling policy environment to foster success.

How do we get “back to the future”?

  • Educating to build trust across the business and supply chain and to teach consumers to take back products for recycling and encourage a repair culture
  • Collaborating across retail brands on takeback programs – taking each other’s products and engaging supply chain partners that can recycle or re-use goods; defining and using bio-based content – is food a byproduct of clothing and vice versa?; and advocating to end fast fashion – promote slow fashion!
  • Demanding durability standards from manufacturers and longer product guarantees, and that manufacturers design for circularity

What kind of support was needed to get this vision?

Retailers cited the following EU enabling legislation:

  • Single material law – no more welding/gluing of different materials
  • Single country commitment – from material to finished garment – reduce travel time for products
  • Return a garment/buy a garment policy
  • Zero Waste to Landfill policy
  • Uniform waste management policy across the EU/within states 

Start your sustainability journey

If you are not sure where to start, look to resources like the British Retail Consortium and focus attention and action on product categories associate with your biggest spend. Here are some additional concepts that emerged from the panel and workshop discussions.

Deepen customer relationships

Engaging in sustainability provides an opportunity to deepen your relationship with customers. Consumers, particularly younger generations, increasingly expect retailers to be more responsible and provide sustainable goods and services, yet willingness to pay varies with the product category and demographic. Consider how to retain links to the product throughout its lifespan through new digital tools and new business models that enhance the customer experience with your brand.

Explore new business models

The SDGs and related concepts like the circular economy highlight opportunities for new business models, like reselling and trade-in models, facilitated donation programs, and integrated recycling infrastructure. Finding ways to make it easier for the customer to understand and then do the right thing can generate brand value.

Collaborate across value chains

Engaging suppliers to achieve change is a critical success factor to achieving SDGs, but understanding your supply chain first is essential. Retailers cannot do this alone. Legislators and regulators have a role in incentivizing the right behaviors and levelling the playing field so that companies trying to do the right thing are not priced out of the market for doing so. Coordinating policies across jurisdictions – for instance, establishing a consistent recycling policy across the UK – and investing in infrastructure to support the kind of recycling needed is an opportunity for cross-industry, cross-economy collaboration

GO BACK TO THE FUTURE…


CATHERINE SHEEHEY
ul360@ul.com

To find out more about UL and the services they provide to the retail industry, click here.

This article was originally published in The Retailer, our quarterly online magazine providing thought-leading insights from BRC experts and Associate Members.