DDi - April/May 2010 - (Page 14)

14 | Greentailing The multiplier effect I ’m taking you on a quick trip down memory lane. I’m 4 or 5 years old, burying my face in a ball of cotton candy at Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh, and all of a sudden I have this urge to rip out a geranium that is planted in a raised flowerbed beside me (probably the sugar). Two seconds later, I get the scolding I deserve and am delivered the words of wisdom that, as a retail sustainability consultant, still resonate today: “What if everyone in this park did that? There’d be no flowers to enjoy, would there?!” Fortunately, that was just an isolated case by one little Justin. But, in retail, we have the multiplier effect, where the same thing is happening in thousands of places, by thousands of people, multiple times each day. This is the problem at hand—the mounting environmental impact by the consistent feed of inputs and outputs of a retail enterprise on a daily basis. The true impact of retail—its operations, maintenance and supply chain. For example, think of the seven garbage bags full of plastic and paper left over from a fresh batch of processed inventory, multiply by 3,400 stores at two shipments a week, and this single retailer is paying for the landfilling of 2,474,200 bags of inventory packaging waste a year—a cost center that could be avoided. This list could go on and on, to include obsolete or broken store fixtures, refrigerant charges, returned or damaged product, or POP and marketing materials discarded whenever there is a weekly sales update, seasonal promotion or new product. Surprisingly, impact issues like this that emerge via the multiplier effect have somehow yet to become part of the sustainability dialogue in green retail. Instead, we continue to see the lone green flagship approach as a primary effort to validate a retailer’s sustainability journey. Consider the irony here. A CSR (corporate social responsibility) report goes out to shareholders of a Fortune 100 retailer, and the sustainability section talks about recycling at corporate headquarters and two new greencertified flagship stores. Unfortunately, the new green flagships don’t bring resolve to many of the retailer’s major footprint areas. Why? Because until now, we’ve not had the metrics in place to help identify key impact areas. The reality is that most planning teams don’t invite facility maintenance and store management to the design table, because the green certification gets enough PR splash to satisfy executives, and corporate sustainability plans are often diluted by the prescriptive paths that eco-labels have paved for us. I’m not criticizing the practice of green flagship development or eco-labels, rather, I’m trying to emphasize the value and accelerated ROI that retailers and their design teams would experience if they focused on just the top five impact areas right now. Yes, evaluating the retail footprint to understand impact does require some time and money—but as a consequence to not embracing a more holistic approach and knowing inefficiencies in the first place, countless retailers are scratching their heads trying to figure out why green efforts like LEED certification are not paying back. The reality retail faces today and moving forward is the acknowledgement and strategy around correcting its most wasteful and inefficient practices with regards to climate change. This is why the adoption of the new carbon footprinting methodology PAS 2050 is so exciting. For the first time, it enables retailers and manufactures to understand where they can have substantial impact, and rewards them for developing customized reduction tactics that tackle their weak areas. Ironically, these are typically simple and affordable changes that, when made enterprise-wide, are much more relevant, worthy and impactful than a single flagship approach. What does this mean? Retailers that will be acknowledged as leaders in sustainability in the future, as well as those that will benefit from the most dramatic savings, will be those entities that are looking through the lens of the multiplier effect and addressing change across their portfolio. What I present here is a mindset, not a prescriptive path. On your next green retail site tour, don’t just look for the sexy solar panels or the latest, greatest renewable material (although those are great if the right business case is in place). Instead, start getting excited about consistent waste streams in the dumpster, or POP components, fixtures and the often undersized stock room that’s filled to the brim with obsolete items destined for the landfill. Start asking how you can do just as much with less. Why? Because what you’ll start seeing are not only big opportunities for creative solutions to roll into that investor report, but also the biggest liabilities a retailer will have in the emerging carbon world. Ask yourself whether your green flagship product or store is built around your unique retailing impact areas. If not, consider taking the multiplier approach in your next planning phase—try it, you’ll like it. Cheers, Justin Doak Founder, Ecoxera – Green Business Strategy for Retail Send green retail questions to justindoak@ecoxera.com. For more information on carbon metrics in retail, visit www.littlegreensubmarine.com. www.ddimagazine.com | April/May 2010 http://www.littlegreensubmarine.com http://www.ddimagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DDi - April/May 2010

DDi - April/May 2010
Contents
From the Editor
Newsworthy
Consumer Insights
Greentailing
Editor’s Choice
Design Snapshot
Channel Focus: Department Stores
Sporting Authority
Lighting Super Section
Lighting the Way
Viva Mexicano
Right Light
Product Spotlight
GlobalShop Show Coverage
Calendar
Advertisers
Classifieds
Think Tank

DDi - April/May 2010