The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has announced that its members have ‘race[d] ahead’ on going green, meeting or exceeding every target set by the body and other groups, such as the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

The claim comes with the launch of the group’s ‘A Better Retailing Climate’ progress report for 2012. The 16-page document outlines various steps BRC members have taken to reduce not their environmental impact, but also the environmental impact of their customers and of their supply chains.

Progress is measured against goals laid out in the BRC’s A Better Retailing Climate initiative, which was set up in 2008 and committed its members to ‘sector-wide green goals’.

Report findings

According to the progress report, members exceeded their targets in reducing emissions in all five retailer impact areas: buildings, refrigeration, transport, water and waste.

• Buildings: Retailers committed to cut energy-related emissions from buildings by 25 per cent by 2013 (compared with 2005 levels and allowing for growth). By 2012, these emissions were down by 33 per cent, exceeding target by eight per cent;
• Refrigeration: Retailers committed to halve emissions from refrigeration by 2013 (relative to floor space to allow for business growth) and by 2012, these had been reduced by 52 per cent, exceeded target by two per cent;
• Transport: Retailers committed to reduce delivery emissions by 15 per cent by 2013 (compared with 2005 levels) and achieved a 27 per cent reduction by 2012, exceeding target by 12 per cent;
• Water: Retailers committed to measure water use in sites collectively anticipated as accounting for 75 per cent of water usage. By 2012, an estimated 87 per cent of water usage was measured, exceeding target by 12 per cent; and
• Waste: Retailers committed to reduce waste sent to landfill to below 15 per cent by 2013. Signatories sent 10 per cent of waste to landfill in 2012 (down from 45 per cent in 2005), exceeding target by five per cent.

Targets were reportedly surpassed through a range of different actions including implementing energy-efficient light bulbs, using lower carbon vehicles, installing rainwater harvesting systems, introducing closed loop recycling and developing supply chain best practice guidance.

Four out of the five customer impact targets were labelled as ‘on track’ with one target - to reduce food and associated packaging waste arising by 5 per cent by the end of 2015, against a 2012 baseline (as outlined in WRAP’s Hospitality & Food Service Agreement) – labelled as ‘agreed’.

Further, the supply chain target to reduce waste in the supply chain by five per cent (as outlined in WRAP’s second phase of the Courtauld Commitment) was exceeded by 3.3 per cent, while the self-imposed target to source 100 per cent certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) by 2015 was marked as ‘on track’ (currently 60 per cent).

The BRC, whose members include Tesco, Homebase and Waitrose, said the sector is also ‘on track with ambitious goals to reduce the environmental impact of customers in the supply chain, in areas including packaging and food waste in the home’.

BRC Environment Policy Adviser Alice Ellison said: “This update demonstrates that the retail industry is going above and beyond in its commitments to reducing its environmental impact across all aspects of its operations. Despite the downturn and other challenges affecting business, retailers are continuing to innovate and collaborate in this space, which delivers real environmental benefits as well as value for their customers.

“We want to keep this momentum going past the 2008 commitments, so our next step is setting new targets to build on this progress and continue to invest in protecting the planet.”

Industry suggestions

The progress report also contains a number of suggestions and demands to the UK government from the BRC’s members to improve sustainability in the sector.

These include:

• making carbon taxes 'fairer';
• an exemption for low carbon vehicles from congestion charging & Low Emissions Zones;
• greater consistency in the range of waste materials collected by local authorities;
• lobbying the EU to end regulations on the shape and size of fruit so 'retailers [can] sell all fruit and vegetable[s] regardless of appearance’;
• regarding timber, the BRC asks the UK government to 'accept evidence from third party certifications as demonstrating sufficient proof of legality for complicated supply chains, such as composite supply chains and paper products';
• a reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and compliance with the Illegal Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IUU) regulation, as well as sustainable management of fisheries worldwide; and
• greater support for and uptake of CSPO.

The BRC decries what it calls the 'burdensome regulation' of the palm oil industry. However, the use of palm oil has attracted widespread criticism from environmental groups for its contribution to the destruction of rainforests and ‘land grabbing’. According to Friends of the Earth, the palm oil industry can be partly to blame for deforestation as biofuels such as palm oil constitute ‘the largest driver of land grabbing in the global south in recent times’.

Although the BRC states that it wants its members to use 100 per cent CSPO by 2015, Friends of the Earth have questioned its effectiveness: “The certification of palm oil by the RSPO [Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil] does not halt deforestation, it does not halt the expansion of damaging oil palm plantations and it does not benefit local communities. Basically it fails to deal with the causes of the palm oil problems”, said Friends of the Earth International Agrofuels Campaign Coordinator, Torry Kuswardono.

“Certifying palm oil as responsible or sustainable makes consumers feel good and encourages increased consumption, which is precisely the root cause of the problem”, he added.

Read the BRC's ‘A Better Retailing Climate’ progress report for 2012.