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Retailers' Role in Promoting Sustainable Consumption: Opportunities & Initiatives, Summaries of Sustainable Development

University of Central Lancashire (UCLan)Sustainable Development

The important role retailers play in promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns. Retailers, as gatekeepers between producers and consumers, have the opportunity to edit product choices, influence consumer purchasing habits, and reduce their own environmental impacts. The document also explores recent initiatives in the nordic region and the eu to foster sustainable retail practices.

What you will learn

  • What initiatives have retailers in the Nordic region and the EU taken to promote sustainable retail practices?
  • How can retailers influence consumer purchasing habits in a sustainable direction?
  • What role do retailers play in promoting sustainable consumption and production?

Typology: Summaries

2021/2022

Uploaded on 09/27/2022

floweryy
floweryy 🇬🇧

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TheroleofretailersinthetransitiontowardsSustainableConsumptionand
Production
Modernlifestylesandconsumptionpatternshaveradicallychangedoverthepastdecades,resultingin
unprecedentedpressureontheenvironment.Ashifttomoresustainableconsumptionandproduction
patternswasthereforeadoptedasthecornerstoneofsustainabledevelopmentduringtheUNWorld
SummitforSustainableDevelopmentinJohannesburgin2002.
ThepositionofretailersintheproductchainandtheirpotentialroleinencouragingSCP
Retailers–wheremostofusbuyourfoodandconsumerproducts–haveanimportantroletoplayin
promotingsustainableconsumptionandproduction.Retailersoccupyauniquepositioninthelifecycle
chainofproductsasa"gatekeeper"betweenproducersandconsumersandcanthereforepotentiallyplaya
majorroleinadvancingthesustainabilityofconsumptionandproduction.
First,retailersofferahugevarietyofproducts–theproductrangetypicallyincludesseveralthousand
uniqueproducts–andarethusindirectcontactwithalargenetworkofsuppliers,includingmanufacturers
anddistributors.Thisgivesretailerstheopportunitytoeditchoicesthroughselectinganddeselecting
productsaswellastoworktogetherwiththeirproducerandsuppliercompaniestostimulatesustainable
manufacturingandaswellasdevelopmentofmoresustainableproducts.
Secondly,beingindirectcontactwithconsumers,retailersexertinfluenceonwhatkindofproducts
consumersbuy,andhowtheyuseanddisposeofthem.Retailersthushavethepotentialtoinfluence
consumers'purchasinghabits(andtosomeextent,consumptionhabitsingeneral)inasustainable
directionbyencouragingandenablingsustainableconsumption,forexamplebymakingeco‐labelled
productsavailableandvisible(alsoknownas"choiceinfluencing").
Thirdly,aswithothermajoractorsintheproductchain,retailerscanreducethedirectenvironmental
impactsfromtheirownoperationsbyfocusingonin‐houseenvironmentalmanagementoftheirfacilitiesas
wellastransportationandlogistics.Thesizeoftheretailsectormeansthatthepotentialenvironmental
improvementsfromretailers’ownoperationsarenotinsignificant.(ETC/SCP,forthcoming)
Lastlytheretailsectorisbecomingmoreconcentrated,withfewerandlargerretailers,andinmost
countriesnational/internationalchainsaregrowing.InsomeNordiccountries(FinlandandSweden),the
topfiveretailersmadeupmorethan70%ofthegrocerymarketin2005(AAI&RPI,2007).This
concentrationoftheretailsectormakesitapotentiallyeffectiveentrypointforpolicyintervention
comparedtoreachingouttothousandsofproducersandmillionsofconsumers.
Thepositionofretailersintheproductchainisillustratedinthefigurebelow:
Source:DevelopedfromETC/SCP,forthcoming
pf3

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The role of retailers in the transition towards Sustainable Consumption and

Production

Modern lifestyles and consumption patterns have radically changed over the past decades, resulting in unprecedented pressure on the environment. A shift to more sustainable consumption and production patterns was therefore adopted as the cornerstone of sustainable development during the UN World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002. The position of retailers in the product chain and their potential role in encouraging SCP Retailers – where most of us buy our food and consumer products – have an important role to play in promoting sustainable consumption and production. Retailers occupy a unique position in the life cycle chain of products as a "gatekeeper" between producers and consumers and can therefore potentially play a major role in advancing the sustainability of consumption and production. First, retailers offer a huge variety of products – the product range typically includes several thousand unique products – and are thus in direct contact with a large network of suppliers, including manufacturers and distributors. This gives retailers the opportunity to edit choices through selecting and deselecting products as well as to work together with their producer and supplier companies to stimulate sustainable manufacturing and as well as development of more sustainable products. Secondly, being in direct contact with consumers, retailers exert influence on what kind of products consumers buy, and how they use and dispose of them. Retailers thus have the potential to influence consumers' purchasing habits (and to some extent, consumption habits in general) in a sustainable direction by encouraging and enabling sustainable consumption, for example by making eco‐labelled products available and visible (also known as "choice influencing"). Thirdly, as with other major actors in the product chain, retailers can reduce the direct environmental impacts from their own operations by focusing on in‐house environmental management of their facilities as well as transportation and logistics. The size of the retail sector means that the potential environmental improvements from retailers’ own operations are not insignificant. (ETC/SCP, forthcoming) Lastly the retail sector is becoming more concentrated, with fewer and larger retailers, and in most countries national/international chains are growing. In some Nordic countries (Finland and Sweden), the top five retailers made up more than 70% of the grocery market in 2005 (AAI & RPI, 2007). This concentration of the retail sector makes it a potentially effective entry point for policy intervention compared to reaching out to thousands of producers and millions of consumers. The position of retailers in the product chain is illustrated in the figure below: Source: Developed from ETC/SCP, forthcoming

Classification of retail initiatives aimed at promoting SCP As briefly described above, the unique position of retailers in the product chain provides them with the opportunity and responsibility to endeavour to reduce the impacts of consumption and production, not only via focusing on their own facilities, but also by focusing upstream and downstream. It is useful from the retailer’s perspective to divide the possible environmental initiatives into three broad categories: 1) What retailers choose to sell and how it is produced (activities upstream in the product chain), 2) How retailers sell (in‐store activities) and 3) How retailers communicate with consumers (downstream activities in the product chain). Upstream activities can reduce the indirect environmental impacts of retailers by selecting green products and greening the product chain before the product reaches the stores – or in other words addressing what retailers choose to offer the consumer and how it is produced. The overall aim of this group of activities is thus to reduce overall environmental impacts from the manufacturing of the products that the retailer offers. This can include requiring or assisting suppliers to reduce the environmental impacts of their activities and products; sourcing products with lower environmental impacts, both for sale and for retailers´ own use; or editing out products with high environmental impacts from their range. In‐shop activities can reduce direct environmental impacts from retailer’s own operations, by focusing on in‐house environmental management of their facilities, e.g. energy and water consumption and waste generation, as well as environmental impacts from transportation and logistics. Downstream activities can reduce the indirect impact of retailing associated with the purchasing, use and disposal of products by consumers. The overall aim of such activities is to make it easy and attractive for consumers to make sustainable choices. Assisting consumers to make more environmentally sound choices can for instance be done by ‘greening’ the product range, by strategic product placement of green products, by supporting the concept of buying less but higher quality and by developing advertising, communication strategies and pricing mechanisms to increase the uptake of and demand for green products. Source: Developed from ETC/SCP, forthcoming Upstream, in‐shop and downstream activities are at times closely linked. Thus, it is often useful for the retailers to work across the three categories, involving different departments and disciplines in the retailer chains – purchasers, marketing staff, sustainability departments, etc. This is also the case for wider retail initiatives, such as development of sustainability strategies and reports as well as stakeholder engagement. In this case, coordination across the product chain and between different departments in the retailer chains is required.