![[Visit GIN Website]](images/banner.gif)
Main Author: Burcu Tuncer, Project Manager, UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on SCP
Abstract:
Retailers have a “gatekeeper” role within many product chains connecting suppliers with consumers and vice versa. On the one hand, being in direct contact with consumers, they exert significant influence on what products consumers want to buy, and how they use and dispose them. On the other hand, they reach out to suppliers worldwide bearing the opportunity to encourage green and fair production practices.
Retailers can directly influence
consumer choice at the sales point, during consumers use of products and at the
end of product life (see Figure 1). Working together with their producer and
supplier companies, retailers can edit choices, and encourage ecologically
correct and socially fair manufacturing processes. To communicate these
differentiated product qualities and to well position their green and fair
brands, they use a variety of marketing, advertising, and communication tactics
at the sales point. In addition to this, to communicate improved experience of
product use and after-sales value, they utilize other set of communication
strategies from delivering information on packaging of products to forming
third-party partnerships or setting up take-back systems. However, retailers'
role is not limited to putting life cycle thinking into practice. Beyond this,
they can and do play a role as well in encouraging sustainable ways of living
as they communicate certain values and induce particular habits.
All in all,
retailers' efforts towards sustainable consumption and production can span
three major functions looking from a life cycle perspective: upstream efforts
in relation to suppliers and producer companies, in-store operations and
consumer relations. From life cycle assessment studies, it is known that
priority for action for retailers are often located upstream within their
supply chains, followed by downstream consumer use phase activities while
in-house aspects as their direct impacts are considered to be relatively low
importance (See Figure 2). Having said this, most retailers can foresee only
their first tear producer companies and in-store operations as they can easily
exert control and anticipate immediate value. The degree of influence retailers
can exercise in their supply chains depends on the degree of vertical
integration and brand ownerships. On the consumer side the motive to provide consumers
with information on supply chain issues as well as environmentally friendly use
and disposal may not be straightforward. Recently the strategy of
choice-editing - removal of “unsustainable” products and services from the
marketplace in partnership with other actors in society is often suggested as
the core sustainable consumption approach for retailers. However, some
retailers are reserved to limit consumer choice as they see themselves as choice
providers, so choice editing may not be as easy to put into practice. Indeed
these issues are rather taken up by producer or brand-owner companies.
Concerning the initial section of this paper, inventory of the life
cycle management initiatives led solely by retailer companies, or where
retailers are involved resulted in about 90 initiatives focusing on different
product life cycle stages and different issues (See Figure 3). Initiatives at
the shop-level
are usually on environmental improvements at the site-level such as energy and
water efficiency, packaging and waste reduction, efficient logistics and use of
environmentally friendly building material. About half of the initiatives
identified are relevant all retailers irrespective of the products they sell
(crosscutting initiatives), while the other half are initiatives led by a group
of food & drink retailers. Upstream initiatives usually focus on both environmental and social issues including labour
and pollution issues during extraction and production stages. In many cases
these are initiatives led by producers where retailers have joined at a later stage.
Most of these upstream initiatives are quite ahead in identifying main life
cycle issues and developing them into responsible sourcing and/or labelling
criteria (e.g. FSC, ETI, Fair Trade). Some of the retailers have integrated
these criteria in their supplier code of conduct. They apply sustainable
sourcing criteria for the products they buy, including products they sell to
customers as well as (indirect)
The purchasing decisions of these customers, as well as how they use and
dispose of goods at home, have a great impact on the environment and energy
usage. Through downstream initiatives, retailers help their customers to make
informed decisions about products and their use. Sector-level initiatives
identified focus on encouraging sales of energy-efficient lighting and products
with reduced carbon footprint, while company self-led initiatives focus on
sales of more environmentally-friendly and ethical products.
Given this framework, the objective
of this paper is threefold: first, the large numbers of retailer initiatives
which have emerged in recent years aiming to develop life cycle management
practices to achieve sustainable operations and products, have made it
difficult to keep an overview about the scope, issue areas and effectiveness of
these initiatives. To address this issue the first part of this paper briefly
describes and classifies current European initiatives taken by retailers and
companies to recognise current actions and areas for performance improvement of
management strategies. Secondly, given this map of initiatives, the paper has the objective to reflect
on the most recent initiatives such as the upcoming Retailer Forum within the
EU SCP Action Plan and the retailers project group under the UNEP/SETAC Life
Cycle Initiative.
products they use at their stores.