Responsible Retailing - Consumer interest in environment at ten year high

Consumers' interest in the environment is running at a 10-year high having risen over the past two years to overtake caring for employees as the most important area for companies to pay attention towards.

 

But the difficulty for retailers is that the people who are motivated to make changes and those who would be easy to convince to make changes represent only a combined 35 per cent of consumers. Hill says the big question therefore is: “How do you bring along the rest who will only do so if they are forced?”

This is the same situation encountered by all retailers, according to Hill, who adds: “Last year most major retailers articulated responses to the issues and all received the same messages back from consumers.”

He says M&S had created a 'sustainability report' in 2004 that was not published but part of it became its 'Look behind the label' campaign. This was followed up recently with its much-publicised 'Plan A' initiative after the response to the campaign gave M&S the confidence to set out a fuller vision for the future.

This is based on five pillars: climate change, waste, sustainable raw materials, fair partner, and health. Hill admits that Plan A is “very much a starter” in its plans for adapting the business to being more sustainable in the way it operates in the future. “We will respond and evolve to changes in society. The 'fair partners' aspect is not as ambitious as other elements so we'll consider beefing it up later in the year,” he explains. Such initiatives he believes need the support of chief executives, which therefore makes it a major benefit to M&S that its boss Sir Stuart Rose is at the forefront of Plan A. “Only when the CEO is engaged at the head of the process does it become strategic,” suggests Hill.

He also regarded communications (to customers, staff, shareholders and suppliers) as an essential aspect of a sustainability strategy even though there is the risk that it will then be regarded by many people as simply a public relations exercise. “Sometimes it falls into PR 'greenwash' but if it is real then communications have to play a part in it,” he says.