Deep dive: The climate change KPIs that will protect profits and the planet
The climate crisis is reaching a critical moment. Human activity from the way we produce, shop and dispose of unwanted goods has culminated in a situation that may soon become irreversible – a plight that will fall firmly under the microscope at COP26.
The summit comes just months after a damning report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that failure to take decisive action now would risk meeting the world temperature limit in the next decade.
COP26 is being held in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12, 2021
COP26 is being held in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12, 2021
Governments around the world are putting targets in place to avoid such a catastrophe. Westminster, for instance, wants the UK to become net-zero on a Scope 3 basis – covering emissions across the value chain from production to end-use by consumers – by 2050.
Retailers are also waking up to the fact that strategic shifts in the way they operate will be vital to protect not just the planet, but long-term profitability.
During the coronavirus pandemic, society has witnessed what can be achieved when travel by air and road is reduced, when we produce and consume less, and when we promote a circular economy.
As a result, lenders, shareholders and shoppers are increasingly paying attention to sustainability credentials when deciding which businesses to invest in and where to shop. Indeed, environmental, social and governance (ESG) is fast emerging as one of the most crucial factors in deciding a retailer’s future success or failure.
“Customers have an expectation that businesses the size of Tesco behave responsibly. As a retailer, it’s become a fundamental part of doing business”
Tesco boss Ken Murphy surmises: “Price, taste and convenience are still the primary drivers of choice for customers, but increasingly customers have an expectation that businesses the size of Tesco behave responsibly, both in terms of the community and in terms of the planet.
“They won’t pay you a premium for it or necessarily reward you for it, but they would leave you if you didn’t do it. As a retailer, it’s become a fundamental part of doing business.”
As Nicola Stopps, chief executive at ESG and sustainability consultancy Simply Sustainable, puts it: “To remain operative and profitable in this constantly changing environment, retailers need to address the most pressing social and environmental challenges, and embed sustainability into their thinking and operations.”
But in which areas should retailers be focusing their sustainability efforts to drive the most meaningful results – both for profit and the planet?
Educate the consumer
Sustainability has been thrust to the forefront of consumer consciousness over the past few years, with activists like Greta Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion movement raising awareness of the damage we are doing to our planet. As a result, growing numbers of shoppers are calling on retailers, brands and governments to implement change.
According to data from predictive analytics firm First Insight, 65% of consumers now say sustainability is an “important” factor in their purchasing decisions.
However, according to Kantar, 70% of consumers believe they can’t make a real difference because they don’t know where to start. This creates a value-action or attitude-behaviour gap. In other words, consumers would like to live more sustainably, but want retailers to remove any obstacles preventing them from making those decisions.
Retailers have a unique ability to influence what consumers buy and how they use their purchases at home. According to Love Food Hate Waste (part of sustainability charity Wrap), UK households discard 4.5 million tonnes of edible food every year, while 40% of carbon emissions in the UK come from the home.
In an exclusive interview with Retail Week in September, Marks & Spencer boss Steve Rowe coined the term “frictionless sustainability” – the notion that providing customers with more insight into the items they are purchasing makes it easier and quicker for them to make sustainable decisions, both in store and at home.
M&S has brought back its Look Behind the Label campaign, for instance, which allows customers to obtain detailed information about the sustainability credentials of the food, clothing or homewares they are purchasing.
“There are plenty of examples of consumers adopting and growing a new segment, or boycotting another, which suggests that education can shift behaviour”
If retailers can educate consumers about their company’s sustainability principles and how they can shop more ethically, this not only incentivises customers to reach for the product that is better for the planet, but it will ultimately get them to see the value in it, too.
“If the consumer identifies information as a key barrier, by educating them the sustainable products will be more compelling,” explains Shalini Unnikrishnan, Boston Consulting Group managing director and partner.
“Retailers will then be able to shift them towards these products and, in the process, achieve a price premium, because these sustainable products tend to be higher-cost.”
Unnikrishnan compares this to the rise in consumers switching to organic products once they understood the benefits, even though these are often sold at a higher price.
“There are plenty of examples of consumers adopting and growing a new segment, or boycotting another, which suggests that education can shift consumer behaviour,” she insists.
McKinsey & Company partner Anita Balchandani agrees, offering the example of how plant- and nut-based milks now demand as much space in supermarket aisles as their dairy counterparts. And she suggests we will see a similar evolution in other categories outside food.
“I’m a firm believer that unless you bring the customer into the sustainability approach, the industry won’t get enduring change,” she says.
“The fashion equivalent would be edits. How do you make it easier for customers to find sustainable options? This needs to be demystified for customers – not every customer will be able to understand the impact of every garment. This is about how retailers think about navigation, increasing the number of sustainable products in the mix.”
H&M is trialling the addition of environmental performance scores to its garments, similar to the health labels seen on grocery items in supermarkets. Using the Higg Index Sustainability Profile, H&M says it aims to “empower customers to make more informed decisions when they want to make a purchase from H&M”.
Online rival Zalando has tagged all relevant products with a green ‘sustainability’ banner, while its circular garments – products designed to be recyclable from the outset – each carry a digital passport.
Shoppers can scan a QR code that connects them to a product site where they can learn where the garment was produced, what materials it is made from and how to take care of it. Since its launch, Zalando says one-in-three customers have scanned the labels and explored the product sites for an average of two and a half minutes.
The German fashion giant has also refocused its own-label Zign brand towards being more sustainable. Some 16% of its revenue now comes from products it classes as sustainable – and it plans to improve that to 25% by 2023. Zalando’s EBITDA hit €264.9m (£223.6m) in the six months to June 30, more than tripling the previous year’s total, proving that green can equal growth.
Home and DIY retailers are also thinking carefully about how to better educate their shoppers. Kingfisher head of sustainability Caroline Laurie says the business wants to take decisions out of consumers’ hands where appropriate, rationalising ranges to ensure that the only options available to purchase in certain categories are the more sustainable products.
“By range-editing and educating our customers, we can have a really big impact on our footprint. This is where retailers can find the sweet spot between tackling climate change and driving business opportunities”
“Home and DIY retailers have a unique opportunity because what we sell can directly impact the carbon footprint in people’s homes,” Laurie says.
“By range-editing and educating our customers, we can have a really big impact on our footprint. This is where retailers can find the sweet spot between tackling climate change and driving business opportunities – customers won’t have to stand in front of a product range and wonder which is a sustainable solution.”
Kingfisher has switched all of its lighting products to LEDs, for instance, meaning customers can make energy-efficient purchases without having to consider alternative options. The DIY giant has also formulated a peat-free compost, which produces significantly fewer carbon emissions. By replacing old peat-compost products, Kingfisher has slashed its Scope 3 emissions, educated its customers and simplified their decision-making process at the point of purchase – all without impacting on profits.
Some 42% of the group's sales now come from products that create more sustainable homes – a figure that has doubled in the past decade. Kingfisher’s B&Q business now makes 55% of its total sales from sustainable products.
“Understanding where your biggest impacts are is a powerful tool and one that can help you inform and educate your customers,” says Simply Sustainable’s Stopps.
“Consumers react well to transparency and it can help to inform their shopping habits – for example, if a product is organic, fair-trade or ethically sourced. There is a natural evolution to create more transparency around labelling to provide greater information around a product’s carbon footprint, water consumption and energy use.”
Consumers will ultimately require a degree of hand-holding to make sustainable decisions, but that will encourage them to practice behaviours and make purchases that benefit not just the planet, but also retailers’ bottom lines.
M&S' Look Behind the Label campaign allows customers to check a product's sustainability credentials
M&S' Look Behind the Label campaign allows customers to check a product's sustainability credentials
H&M is trialling the addition of environmental performance scores to its garments
H&M is trialling the addition of environmental performance scores to its garments
Kingfisher wants to take decisions out of consumers’ hands where appropriate
Kingfisher wants to take decisions out of consumers’ hands where appropriate
Produce less, reduce waste
McKinsey & Company, World Bank and World Economic Forum
McKinsey & Company, World Bank and World Economic Forum
According to the latest government figures, more than 200 million tonnes of waste are discarded in the UK every year – a quarter of that total is produced by commercial and industrial businesses.
The retail sector has three main outputs in terms of waste: materials, plastic and water. All three can be tackled through reduction, reuse and recycling, in turn saving businesses money on raw materials and boosting margins.
Plastics have been a key focus over the past couple of years, with many retailers reducing the amount of packaging they use both in stores and for online orders.
Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Asda are among the grocers trialling refill stations and loose items, encouraging customers to only buy what they need when they need it.
M&S is aiming for 100% of its packaging to be recycled by 2022 and wants to reduce the overall volume of plastic packaging it produces by 30% by 2027. The high street stalwart has removed 3,000 tonnes of plastic packaging since 2018 in its grocery division, including all black plastic, which is notoriously difficult to recycle.
In clothing, M&S has also diverted more than 1 billion hangers from landfill through its hanger reuse programme by asking customers to leave them at till points or bring them back to stores.
Ted Baker will be implementing a similar closed-loop system to reduce plastic waste from hangers next year. Although its stores use wooden hangers, its garments are delivered to shops on plastic ones, which will be sent back to the warehouse to be reused.
Boston Consulting Group’s Unnikrishnan urges retailers to reduce the secondary packaging they use to ship goods to stores and optimise packaging to use less plastic.
She cites one retailer that redesigned a toothpaste tube so that the top was smaller, thereby cutting the plastic used by 30%. The tube was cheaper to produce, which cut costs and allowed the business to sell the toothpaste at a lower price, boosting top and bottom lines in that category.
The plastics tax, which takes hold in the UK in April 2022, will make this issue an even more urgent one. Manufacturers will be required to pay for any plastic packaging either produced in or imported into the UK that does not contain at least 30% recycled plastic.
Businesses that import more than 10 tonnes of plastic packaging annually will be charged £200 for every metric tonne that is less than 30% recycled – providing an obvious bottom-line benefit to cutting plastic use.
M&S, Waitrose and Asda are among the grocers trialling refill stations
M&S, Waitrose and Asda are among the grocers trialling refill stations
M&S, Waitrose and Asda are among the grocers trialling refill stations
M&S, Waitrose and Asda are among the grocers trialling refill stations
M&S, Waitrose and Asda are among the grocers trialling refill stations
M&S, Waitrose and Asda are among the grocers trialling refill stations
Although much focus has been on plastics, textile waste is the biggest output of the fashion sector. And, as global consumption rises, the fear is that the amount of waste produced will soar, too.
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a charity that champions a circular economy, the equivalent of one rubbish truckload of clothes is burnt or buried in landfill every second across the globe.
McKinsey’s Balchandani says that 40% of clothing produced ends up in markdowns due to overproduction. Retailers could therefore afford to rationalise their ranges and produce less without it having a detrimental impact on the bottom line.
One privately owned fashion retailer tells Retail Week that it reduced its stockholding by around 40% during the pandemic, but EBITDA held firm during the period. Although it suffered a fall in sales, this was offset by a higher proportion of them being made at full-price, alongside declining levels of waste and discounting.
Similarly, Tesco boss Murphy is focused on rationalising the grocer’s product range in order to reduce costs for both the retailer and its suppliers.
“Our offer and the complexity of our offer expanded massively over time and was not necessarily appreciated by customers - quite the opposite,” he told Retail Week Live in October. “If you look at the success of the discounters, one of the most appealing aspects of their model is the simplicity of it.
“I thought that was a big lesson for us and so I’m very committed to making sure that any innovation or products that are added to Tesco truly add value for customers, and to take out the products that don’t because they’re a drain on our costs and those of our suppliers.
“We can then reinvest that money into better value, better availability, better in-store experiences and focus on things that matter.”
Indeed, outerwear brand Patagonia has based its entire business model on making more profit by selling less, creating higher-quality products that also happen to be sustainable.
Its famous ‘Don't buy this jacket’ advert in 2011 detailed the environmental cost of a garment in terms of water and carbon dioxide, educating the consumer to think about their own habits – but sales shot up 30% in the aftermath. The value here is in producing fewer, better-quality items that will last for generations.
Patagonia's 2011 'Don't buy this jacket' ad in The New York Times boosted sales
Patagonia's 2011 'Don't buy this jacket' ad in The New York Times boosted sales
Retailers should ultimately, therefore, focus their efforts on producing less and reducing the range of products available in the first place.
Although holding less stock may seem counterproductive, particularly ahead of peak trading periods, reducing the volume of products sent to landfill or sold at a discount will maximise full-price sales and boost the bottom line.
Create a circular model
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation predicts that the circular economy will be worth more than $600bn (£435.8bn) a year by 2025 – providing an avenue for sales and profit growth that businesses can pursue without harming the planet.
“Eliminating waste from the industrial chain by ‘closing the loop’ promises production cost savings and less resource dependence,” the charity says.
“The benefits are not merely operational, but also strategic; not merely for industry, but also for users; and not merely a source of efficiency, but also a source of innovation and growth.
“The potential identified so far represents only a small fraction of what could be possible if circular business models were to be applied at scale.”
Despite the estimated growth of the circular economy, retailers remain in the early stages of exploring such routes to market.
“There’s a potential to look at business models using waste as a resource, which is a cost-effective way of thinking”
Traditional retailers including John Lewis, Ikea and Selfridges are among those dipping their toes into the rental, resale and refurbishment models. Operating in these areas not only extends the lifecycle of products, but also drives more sales for retailers from items that would otherwise be seen as waste – and can provide a ‘halo effect’ on more traditional sales elsewhere in stores and online.
“There’s a potential to look at business models using waste as a resource, which is a cost-effective way of thinking,” says Thomas Van Halewyck, managing partner at venture development firm Bundl.
“It's interesting to look at products and services coming from something that traditionally has no value any more. By doing that, being able to drive more business than in the first place, the value is there in how you can put the product back into a reusable context.”
Van Halewyck outlines three ways for businesses to enter the circular economy: by redesigning products to ensure they can be disassembled and reassembled; by working with an external partner to reuse or recycle the waste; or by enabling customers to form their own circular system within your ecosystem, for example in rental and resale.
Tesco, for instance, has partnered with reusable packaging platform Loop to keep bottles and jars in circulation longer. The concept is being trialled in 10 stores on 88 product lines, including pasta, rice and Unilever-owned products such as Tetley teabags and Persil washing detergent.
Loop ranges are offered in pre-filled containers designed for the product type. Each product is purchased with a deposit, which is refunded via an app when the customer returns the packaging to the Loop drop-off point in store. Loop then cleans the packaging to an industrial standard before it is refilled, creating an easy system to help shoppers be more sustainable, while keeping packaging in use for longer.
Tesco’s Murphy candidly admits that “in that particular manifestation, I’m not sure Loop will be the answer”. But he insists businesses must “be very open-minded” about testing circular solutions and allow such pilots to “evolve” until they find the right model for customers.
Rotaro and Hurr are among the fashion rental firms championing an alternative
Rotaro and Hurr are among the fashion rental firms championing an alternative
Rotaro and Hurr are among the fashion rental firms championing an alternative
Rotaro and Hurr are among the fashion rental firms championing an alternative
In the fashion industry, circularity largely applies to materials or rental and resale models. Materials including recycled cotton, recycled polyester and responsible wool are becoming more commonplace, and, as more retailers invest in circularity, the process of turning these into recyclable materials will also become easier and cheaper.
But, according to Zalando, only 1% of clothing is recycled back into new textiles, despite the fact that clothing production has doubled since 2002. Consumers are also buying 60% more, but only keeping those items for half as long as they did 20 years ago. Such stats only serve to underline the scale of the opportunity for retailers.
“Circularity is the solution to these problems,” Zalando’s head of circularity Laura Coppen asserts. “First, we need to look at our current linear economy and move away from a system where we take resources from the planet, use them and throw them away.
“This means that resources and products never become waste and are kept at their highest value for as long as possible, cycling through different loops and business models, such as reuse and remanufacture, until they inevitably end their life, returning to the earth as nutrients or recycled into new materials and products.”
Keeping products in the retail ecosystem for as long as possible by reselling them offers both a planet-friendly and profitable model, which uses less energy than recycling.
“Even high-profile luxury brands are recognising that this is important for the planet, too big to ignore and, as a brand, you’re better off embracing it to keep customers within your ecosystem”
Fashion rental company Rotaro, for example, makes 40% more profit per garment than it would if selling it just once, extending its lifespan by up to 10 times.
“In fashion, we are finally seeing momentum around extending the longevity of products, for example by re-wearing a garment, or shopping vintage and second-hand,” says McKinsey’s Balchandani.
“All of these things are now becoming acceptable, like wearing a rented dress to your wedding because you’re not going to wear it again. We’re now at a stage where even high-profile luxury brands, who historically have viewed resale as cannibalistic, are recognising that this is important for the planet, too big to ignore and, as a brand, you’re better off embracing it to keep customers within your ecosystem.”
That point is crucial. Providing such options for customers will mean they are more likely to stay within the retailer’s ecosystem for longer, thus multiplying the lifetime value of products and the loyalty of customers.
Investing in circular models and closing the loop is therefore the optimum way to boost the value of products already in circulation, without the need to access rapidly depleting raw materials. By doing so, retailers can generate fresh revenue streams, boosting top and bottom lines without damaging the planet.
Don’t compete – collaborate
Healthy competition may drive growth, but when it comes to climate change, collaboration across retailers and their supply chains is key if the sector is to make a lasting and tangible difference to their business models and the planet in the required timeframe.
To meet the government’s target of achieving net-zero Scope 3 emissions by 2050, co-operation will be needed right across the value chain – from farm to fork, warehouse to wardrobe.
“It’s better to be collaborative because we’ll all get there together quicker and it’s better for the consumer to communicate what we’re doing”
As Boohoo’s head of responsible sourcing Andrew Reaney explains: “The reality is that the majority of our factories are shared with other retailers and that is where collaborations are good because you come as a collective voice to the suppliers.
“Every retailer has the same challenges – we’re all trying to become more sustainable. It’s better to be collaborative because we’ll all get there together quicker and it’s better for the consumer to communicate what we’re doing.”
Investments in technology and sustainable materials can quickly eat into a company’s capex budget. McKinsey’s Balchandani suggests that retailers and suppliers should create an “ecosystem” to share that financial burden, leaving businesses to compete on product and service, rather than on sustainability.
“Many of the things we want to do in sustainability are not the cheapest and we know that the consumer is not always willing to pay,” Balchandani says.
“Create an ecosystem of retailers and partners that can scale and create standards in those areas. Then what you do with your brand and product can be where you differentiate, either in the story they tell or the product they make.
"On the base standards, let’s not all try to reinvent the wheel.”
Tesco is among the retailers to partner with waste redistribution platform Olio
Tesco is among the retailers to partner with waste redistribution platform Olio
Waste redistribution platform Olio, for example, is working with a number of major supermarkets to help the grocery sector slash its food waste. Many supermarkets aim to donate edible food waste to charity but, according to Olio chief operating officer Saasha Celestial-One, around 80% of unsold food is still discarded in bins.
“A few years ago, most supermarkets definitely only wanted to work with charities,” she explains. “Now what we’ve seen is that most of them have chosen a solution to scale up and have recognised that the charitable sector cannot absorb all the waste that is generated at retail level.
“Our biggest constraint right now is that most businesses recognise that there is waste associated with food disposal, but they think that food redistribution should be for free – there’s a lack of willingness to make an investment in this.”
In actuality, Olio’s food redistribution service is cheaper than traditional waste disposal and is also better for the planet and local communities. Celestial-One gives the example of wholesaler Booker, which extended its original pilot with Olio to 180 stores after enjoying an average cost saving of £215 per store per week.
Olio is also working with Tesco, Waitrose and Asda, meaning that lessons can be learned and applied across the sector to improve standards and increase cost savings for retailers.
Boston Consulting Group managing director Jessica Frame believes retailers also need to work together to combat greenwashing and create trust among the British public.
That can be done by setting sector-wide targets, like the British Retail Consortium’s Climate Action Roadmap, or signing up to groups such as Wrap’s Textiles 2030 or the Amazon-founded The Climate Pledge.
Doing so not only keeps retailers accountable along their journey, but it also allows them to share valuable insights with one another to drive innovation and cost savings, while improving trust and loyalty among their customer bases.
“If we can come together and support standards and systems, then we can start to have a consolidated and consistent message to the market, which will help to build that trust”
“The marketplace is asking for sustainability, but there’s a huge amount of distrust associated with any claim that is being made,” Frame explains. “There’s an opportunity to come together to strengthen systems that already exist.
“It’s great to see retailers coming out with their ‘green this’ or ‘sustainable that’, but it creates confusion in the marketplace. If we can come together and support standards and systems, then we can start to have a consolidated and consistent message to the market, which will help to build that trust.”
Once retailers have come together to create these base standards and benchmarks, competition can be driven on a product-by-product basis.
Kingfisher’s Laurie gives the example of plant-based ranges in supermarkets, suggesting that retailers should be competing on who has the tastiest plant-based ranges, not on who is quickest to cut their carbon emissions.
The savings made by collaborating on technological investments can in turn be plugged into product innovation, ultimately driving sales and profit growth.
“As we head towards COP26, tackling a challenge on the scale of the global climate emergency and meeting net-zero targets will require collective action from every part of society – from businesses and governments to organisations and consumers,” says Simply Sustainable’s Stopps.
“Some of the most progressive and impactful projects are created when businesses collaborate.”
Summary
Retailers are hearing the call to action on climate change, whether it is from investors, customers, colleagues or governments – and now is the time to act.
From Tesco and Marks & Spencer to Asos and The Hut Group, retailers across the sector have made bold pledges in recent months as they bid to increase their focus on doing the right thing for the planet.
But investing time and money in the right areas can prove to be just as beneficial to earnings as it is to Earth.
While consumers may wish to be more sustainable, there remains a value-action gap for retailers to plug. Education is key, whether that’s storytelling in stores and online, tagging sustainable products more clearly, or range editing to make the choice even easier for the consumer.
Ensuring sustainability is easy, convenient and price-competitive will bring consumers on board and help generate sales growth without harming the planet.
Overproduction is a huge issue in the retail industry. Cutting down on waste throughout the supply chain will be helpful for both planet and profits as fewer items will end up discounted or in landfill, protecting the bottom line.
Waste should also be rebranded and thought of as a resource, using circularity principles to create new products from old and keep customers within a retailer’s ecosystem for longer, driving further sales and profits.
Retailers need to shift to a mindset where products can loop through different lifecycles until they are eventually recycled or returned to the earth, which in turn squeezes more value out than if a product is used once and then thrown away.
Collaboration is also crucial. The onus and cost of creating change does not rest solely on the shoulders of any individual retailer. Businesses must work together to solve the industry’s sustainability problems – the sector is stronger as a collective force.
In a world where investment, loans, remuneration and customer loyalty are increasingly tied to a retailer’s ESG credentials, driving progress on climate change KPIs will not only do good for the planet, but form the foundation of retail’s success in the future.
Partner comments
Nicola Stopps, chief executive,
Simply Sustainable
“When I founded Simply Sustainable 10 years ago, my goal was to help businesses create strong sustainability strategies and take their sustainability performance to new heights. Whether they were starting from scratch or looking to break bold new ground after years of steady progress, the driving force was – and remains to this day – the desire to create strategies that deliver tangible, robust results. A good strategy needs to be attuned to the culture of the business and, while it is helpful to have a long-term vision, the interim goals along the way need to be challenging but achievable.
“The pandemic crisis has forever changed our world and the way we do business. Sustainability is more important than ever. Stakeholders are increasingly more critical and more willing to punish companies that they perceive to be failing to tackle the defining issues of our time – climate change, inequality and environmental degradation. Consumers want to know that the retailer they are buying from is sustainable across the whole value chain. A robust sustainability strategy is essential to any retailer that wants to make sustainability central to its business.
“Designed and deployed correctly, a sustainability strategy has the potential to revolutionise business and realise its potential as a driving force for positive, profitable, regenerative change. It’s not something anyone can achieve alone, but with the right support and collaboration, we can all achieve great things.”
James Skidmore, head of consulting, Valpak
“The retail industry has faced new challenges over the past few years, which have in turn produced new trends in the way that consumers shop and will continue to shop. The impacts that these changes have had on sustainability have been varied and have shown us where improvements can be made with simple switches, how consumer communications can have a positive impact and where more effort needs to be placed. Balancing profitability and sustainability is at the forefront of minds like never before.
“The emphasis on online shopping has changed the landscape of retail packaging and the area of waste, which has presented a change in recycling rates and materials. Analysis of this is crucial to help retailers understand how they impact the environment and how changes that have been necessary to implement due to the pandemic can become long-term solutions to environmental and supply chain sustainability issues. It has helped us to better understand the priorities of the consumer with regard to sustainability and align this with goals for the future.
“The importance of transparent, accurate data reporting around sustainability is key to assisting retailers in knowing exactly what impact their choices have. Beyond this, solid data and intelligent interpretation have been the key to good retail stakeholder management and communication, something that we know will be essential in the face of any anti-sustainability backlash.”
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