Most innovative environmental strategy, winner: Pick n Pay.
As much as we may wish to support the ‘mom and pop” shops, because smaller is generally greener, supermarkets offer a huge convenience and have major economies of scale to exert on greening initiatives.
They can reach many people with educational messages. When you walk into your local Pick n Pay, you may be heartened to see recycling containers for compact fluorescent bulbs and batteries and apparently you will soon be able to strip plastic wrap off your products and leave it right there in recycling bins in the shop.
Every greenie’s dream. Pick n Pay is not a Johnny-comelately to the environment either. Many people will remember collecting their ‘enviro” fact sheet series in the late Eighties and buying Arbor Day trees — something the store has sold each year for decades. And it’s becoming easier to find organic produce on the shelves.
Health foods abound and even green products, such as specially formulated detergents or ethanol gel for low CO2 cookers, are available.
Pick n Pay’s ‘green” detergents label is endorsed by the Indalo Yethu (green labelling) initiative of the department of environmental affairs and tourism and a percentage of proceeds from these sales go to wetlands projects. This steady progress on the green road has been possible only because the environment is taken seriously by management.
Pick n Pay has a sustainable development director and a sustainability steering committee (consisting of the chief executive, chairperson and sustainable development director) that sets and reviews sustainability strategy.
The company abides by the principles of the JSE SRI index and the United Nations Global Compact. It subscribes to the King II and King III codes on corporate governance and has drawn up a company sustainability risk register.
As the embodiment of consumption, it is fitting that this chain is working to reduce waste at all its stores and distribution centres. It has many waste projects, including recycling all plastic and cardboard at distribution centres, earthworm farms at all corporate offices, responsible disposal of electronic waste and even plans to harvest methane from wet waste.
‘At Pick n Pay our approach to waste management is three-tiered,” said Bronwen Rohland, director of supply chain, sustainability, information services and e-tailing. ‘The first tier involves dealing with our own waste, the second focuses on packaging reduction and the third on consumer recycling.”
In terms of the second tier, it moved over from cardboard sleeves to paper labels for some packaging and this has reduced the amount of board used by 1.5 tonnes a year.
In addition to the recycling initiatives, a Green Point store in the Western Cape is making big energy savings. It has been fitted with a lighting design that uses reflection technology to increase output without increasing energy use.
A pilot solar water heater for hot water has been set up at the Longmeadow distribution centre in Johannesburg. Among the big users of energy are the long-haul trucks so the company is working on making biofuel from waste cooking oil.
In Port Elizabeth it has erected a wind turbine at one store. Although it generates only 3% of the store’s electricity, it serves as an education and outreach initiative to shoppers.
Stores themselves use an enormous amount of energy. Although its figures show that overall energy use went up in 2009 rather than down, energy per unit of ‘production” was down.
André Nel, the sustainability manager for Pick n Pay, said: ‘The increased energy usage in 2009 was purely a result of organic growth as Pick n Pay opened new stores, [but] our actual energy consumption was down by 6% per square metre per store.”
Energy savings have been achieved with low-energy lights, stringent travel policies and increased virtual meetings. About 90% of its branded products are sourced locally, which reduces its carbon footprint.
As part of a climate change education and awareness initiative, Pick n Pay sponsored Lewis Gordon Pugh to undertake his historic swim in a lake below the summit of Mount Everest last month. The aim was to raise public awareness internationally about the devastating impact of
climate change.
‘As retailers we cannot ignore the fact that global warming is a threat to food security and that the African continent will be one of the areas most affected,” Rohland said.
The Pugh partnership ties in with a Pick n Pay School Club, which has developed educational material that complements the curriculum. But besides educating the youth, Pick n Pay is sharing the green experience with staff.
Employees are being trained about sustainability and contractors and suppliers in areas such as agriculture, general merchandise and design and building teams have been engaged on the issue.
The M&G Greening judges noted with approval that Pick n Pay could, and did, use its business leverage to educate other companies about environmental practices. A case in point was the new refrigerant demonstration centre.
Pick n Pay has been phasing out ozone-depleting HCFC refrigerants and, in collaboration with the German and South African governments, is launching the South African national refrigerant project to demonstrate new technology and develop business opportunities.
The company has designed new ‘eco stores”, which will boast only environmentally friendly paint, water-saving devices in bathrooms, environmentally friendly cleaning products and even ‘green” toilet paper. A bottom-up approach is always important in completing the virtuous circle, the company believes.