Responsible Retailing - 'CSR has gone from defensive to offensive'

Hilary Jones, ethics director at Lush, says: "We had this dream of a band of people who'd share information on suppliers that did not test their products on animals. But often people don't want to talk to us. It's shameful as it should be shared and used to improve the world."

This reluctance to share information is understandable, according to Jat Sahota, head of corporate responsibility and public affairs at Sainsbury's, who says: "CSR has gone from defensive to offensive so I'm not surprised that those retailers who've a differentiated products and brands would not want to share it with potential competitors. It is part of the mix of how customers decide who to shop with."

However, it is not all bad news for collaboration as Richard Ellis, group head of CSR at Alliance Boots, says that although there might never be sharing between Tesco and Sainsbury's he could see some sort of collaborative approach with logistics between non-competing retailers.

"Where there are non time-critical deliveries from say a clothes retailer, a book shop and Boots then we could happily meet north of Newcastle and take deliveries up to John O'Groats. There is a conversation going on in logistics and we're running a pilot. Some retailers would not do it but it could reduce the number of lorries on the roads and the carbon footprint," says Ellis.

Although Paul Monaghan, head of ethics and sustainable development at Co-operative Group, suggests the government is holding back on legislation on the environment, in the hope that the industry sorts it out itself, he still does not see much collaboration taking place - in particular with transport, which he regards as a competitive area.

However, he acknowledges that there is an undisputed interest in the environment, regardless of whether it involves collaboration, which has meant that the Co-op has had to work hard to maintain its long-held position at the head of the pack on responsible retailing.

"There are ideas now that were previously in the crazy cupboard. All retailers are interested in it now. It's like health and safety - it's what will be expected," says Monaghan. He even suggests that if the CSR department of a major retailer is not as big as that of its health and safety team then "there will be trouble in the future".

As well as having sufficient resources in the CSR department Jenny Dawkins, head of corporate responsibility research at Ipsos MORI, says company's must also convey the right language to the outside world and provide evidence of their environmental activities. "This is not necessarily statistics and numbers but the authenticity of the message and making sure there are no conflicts because people pick up on these quickly," she explains.

This message can sometimes be difficult to convey because there are so many different sustainability issues and individuals are concerned with specific elements. Nick Monger-Godfrey, head of CSR at Waitrose and John Lewis, says: "With a business with 350,000 SKUs the real challenge is where to focus our efforts because different pockets of the marketplace care about different things. As an organisation you have to make choices and live and die by them. You've got to pick your battles."