BEST PRACTICE DATABASE

Click on a category on the right to read a summary of the case studies in that area

Environmental Policies

An environmental policy statement outlines a company's mission and driving force behind their environmental objectives, targets and/or management programme. Well-developed and relevant environmental policies will influence corporate culture and will help to communicate environmental aims and ambitions internally as well as to external stakeholders.

Breadth of Practice

In the Greening Retail database, there are 12 case studies that describe retailers' written environmental policies. The scope of environmental policies varies among companies. Eight of the companies in the database have set out policies with broad, overarching principles, while one of the case studies provides a well-articulated a policy for a specific area.

An environmental policy will ideally be authorized and actively promoted by senior management. The dissemination of policies is important, both externally and internally. It is also important to review and update the policies regularly.

The following table summarizes the types of practices found in the Greening Retail best practice database that pertain to environmental policies and includes the number of companies for which this practice is described in the database.

Policies with Broad Principles

Below are a few examples of retailers' published environmental policies.

The Home Depot's Environmental Principles read as follows:

• Raise awareness of products and practices that reduce our customers' impact on the environment and help customers maintain healthier homes.
• Provide our customers with products that make sustainable use of natural resources, eliminate unnecessary packaging and are accurately labeled.
• Conserve natural resources by using energy and water wisely and seek further opportunities to improve the resource efficiency of our stores and supply chain.
• Minimize waste by recycling and using materials and products with recycled content.
• Maintain programs and procedures to ensure compliance with environmental laws.
• Provide a healthy and safe environment for our associates, customers and neighbors.

ASDA's Environment Policy lays out their larger mission in the introductory paragraph:

We recognise that through the day-to-day operation of our business, we have the potential to have a negative effect on our natural environment. Our aim is to reduce any direct or indirect negative effects we have on our environment through a process of continuous improvement in the way we manage our business operations. We also try to influence our colleagues, customers and suppliers as this can also help reduce the effect we have on the environment.

They then proceed to outline more specific goals:

1. Compliance with the following as a minimum operating requirement:
   • national and international environmental legislation
   • international treaties and agreements
2. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from our stores and distribution centres:
3. Reducing ozone-depleting gases from our stores and distribution centres:
4. Reducing acidifying gases emissions from fleet transport:
5. Minimising packaging on own brand product:
6. Continually improving waste management practices at store level:
7. Encouraging colleagues and customers to use 'green' transport:
8. Disseminating environmental best practice guidance to all ASDA colleagues:
9. Responsible store development:

Mountain Equipment Co-op has laid out a sustainability policy, which encompasses both social and environmental goals:
"The policy provides a definition of sustainability, as well as an articulation of our role. We believe a sustainable world is defined by three inter-dependent principles:

• The planet has a limited carrying capacity and we are all dependent on a healthy, functioning biosphere.
• Individuals can best meet their needs in caring and vibrant communities.
• A just economy is dependent on an equitable society and a healthy planet."

Biedronka's sustainability policy is based on four pillars: "we want to be perceived as a trustworthy employer, a trustworthy quality food retailer, a trustworthy member of the society and a trustworthy member of environment."

Natura is so serious about its principles and beliefs that the first element of its stated business strategy is its commitment to sustainability. Activities deemed most crucial to socially responsible management are monitored through the company's Corporate Responsibility Investment Matrix. To track environmental goals and indicators, it uses the Natura Environmental Management system based on ISO 14001 norms.

Desseminating Policies Internally

It's important to educate staff about company environmental policies. For example, Lotte Department Store is working to raise environmental awareness company-wide through such means as campaigns and education. In November 2005, they initiated an environmental policy compliance campaign by posting six-point campaign posters on bulletin boards at Headquarters and all stores. In addition, all employees and associates received information on environmental policies at morning meetings and during their in-house training sessions.

Disseminating Policies Externally

A popular place to publish environmental policies is in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. For example, the following is published in the Office Depot 2007 Corporate Citizenship Report:

Office Depot has a global environmental policy to increasingly Buy Green, Be Green and Sell Green.

To Buy Green, Office Depot should increasingly work to:

• Source greener office products for resale
• Buy papers from certified "well-managed" forests
• Buy greener office products for internal use

To Be Green, Office Depot should increasingly work to:

• Reduce waste and recycle
• Reduce energy and greenhouse gases from facilities
• Reduce fuel and greenhouse gases from transportation

To Sell Green, Office Depot should increasingly work to:

• Deliver innovative green solutions for contract customers
• Deliver innovative green solutions for online customers
• Deliver innovative green solutions for retail customers

We will also "tell green" by engaging stakeholders and reporting environmental progress annually. Office Depot

Wal-Mart's environmental policy publicity campaign contains three clear, succinct goals. They publicly announced a corporate strategy they call "For the Greener Good", incorporating partnerships, business initiatives and products for positive environmental change. They have committed to three long-term sustainability goals, globally and in Canada:

1. To produce zero waste;
2. To be powered 100 per cent by renewable energy; and,
3. To make more environmentally preferable products available to customers

Policies for Specific Areas

Some retailers focus on specific areas where their business has major environmental influence, For example, in 2004 Office Depot launched an environmental paper procurement policy. In drawing up their updated environmental policy, they enlarged the scope and made linkages between policy areas and environmental programs. Their policy is written in a simple way to foster action and implementation.

Review and Update Policies Regularly

Ideally, a company will revisit their policy annually, and if necessary revise it. For example, Boots regularly reviews and updates their environmental policy, which they first published in 1991 as their environmental aims statement.

This synopsis was compiled from case studies in the Greening Retail Best Practice Database. Sources for the information in the case studies are cited in the database.

Corporate Governance and Structure

The benefits of having environmental policies will not likely be attained if a retail company does not have systems in place to deliver their policy. This area of best practice is concerned with how a corporation sets up its organizational structure to facilitate the implementation of its environmental policies.

Breadth of Practice

Various methods are used by retailers to embed sustainability into their companies. The impetus for going green often comes from the top of a company: in the Greening Retail Database, there are two case studies (out of 14) that illustrate this point.

Other retailers are adopting environmental management systems (EMS's) in order to ensure that environmental policies and plans are followed through. The Greening Retail database provides two examples of companies who have embraced formal environmental management systems. A good environmental plan is usually included in an EMS. The database gives an example of a high profile environmental plan ? Marks and Spencer's Plan A.

More and more, companies are hiring personnel with environmental responsibilities in their job description, if not in whole, but in part. Two case studies in the database describe this practice. Often, a company will form an environmental committee, or green team, to help plan and/or implement environmental initiatives throughout the organization. Five of the case studies explain how retailers are doing this.

A retailer may use unique strategies to incorporate sustainability into their company. The database contains one of each of these strategies: recruiting external corporate advisors, integrating environmental indicators into the operations of the business, and identifying the return on investment for all environmental programs.

Environmental Guidance from Leadership

Going green often starts with the leader(s) of a retail company. For example, Kingfisher's CEO, Ian Cheshire, demonstrates his commitment to sustainability when he says, "As a leading retailer I believe we have a responsibility to take action to tackle climate change and work towards a more sustainable future. From a business perspective sustainability is a Board level issue and commitments have to come from those at the top."

An example of environment-focused leadership in a smaller retail company is Palo Alto Hardware. The store is run by a family whose green philosophy overflows in every aspect of their business. Eric Hassett, who in 1998 took over the day-to day operations of the store from his environmentally aware father, claims his father instilled the practices early on in his life. "As far back as the late 1970's my father was selecting products for the store that had environmental worthiness," says Hassett.

Set up an Environmental Management System

According to the EPA, an Environmental Management System "is a continual cycle of planning, implementing, reviewing and improving the processes and actions that an organization undertakes to meet its business and environmental goals." ISO14001 is an internationally respected standard for environmental management. One retailer who follows this system is Argos. The Argos distribution centre at Basildon has been awarded ISO14001 Registration for its Environmental Management System (EMS). The British Standards Institution (BSI) audited the Basildon centre before the EMS award could be presented.

Ito-Yokado has implemented an environmental management system by which responsible persons have been placed in each business unit and store, and which employs the "PDCA" cycle: Plan, Do, Check, Act. They engage all of their employees in the reduction of the environmental impacts.

Draw up an Environmental Plan

In January, 2007, Marks & Spencer launched ''Plan A''-a business-wide £200m "eco-plan" which will have an impact on every part of M&S' operations over the next five years. The five key areas where the business can be both more sustainable and kinder to the environment are: Climate Change, Waste, Sustainable Raw Materials, Health and being a Fair Partner. Each area has its own goal.

Appoint Staff with Environmental Responsibility

Hiring staff with environmental elements in the title or in the job description is an important element for embedding sustainability into an organization. Mountain Equipment Co-op implements its policies through having personnel having environmental responsibilities in their job descriptions in at least four levels of their organization: The CEO leads a team of eight Senior Managers (at most companies, they're called VPs) who have had at least one sustainability related performance goal linked to their incentive compensation (bonus) plan.

1. They employ an Ethical Sourcing Manager, and Sustainability and Community Manager,
2. A Community Involvement Coordinator reports to the Sustainability and Community Manager, and oversees community granting and partnership programs.
3. Sustainability Coordinators in each store report directly to their Store Managers and work closely with the Head Office sustainability team.

While it firmly believes that responsibility rests with line management, technical guidance and support is provided by the Partnership's Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and team-a shared service to both John Lewis and Waitrose. Principal authority and accountability for these issues rests with the Deputy Chairman and the Director for Corporate Responsibility, and each division has a board director responsible for CSR.

Form Committees with Environmental Responsibilities

Various types of teams or committees are useful in instilling sustainability throughout an organization. For example, Ito-Yokado has established an "Environmental Committee", an organization that covers all of their units.

Because they are responsible for management operations, and thus for promoting CSR, executive officers at The Seiyu, Ltd are all members of the CSR Committee.

Leading the Home Depot's environmental efforts is their Environmental Council, a group of senior leaders from across the company are responsible for developing long-term policy and strategy on environmental issues as well as providing a platform for discussing and dealing with immediate environmental concerns. The cross-functional nature of the council ensures that our environmental impacts are consistently addressed and that our programs reflect our environmental principles.

Chaired by a non-executive director, Boots' Social Responsibilities Committee reports to the board on emerging issues. As an integral part of its risk management and a key element of effective corporate governance, Waitrose established a CSR committee in 2002. The committees are supported by a number of technical working groups that address a wide range of topics.

Integration of Indicators and Operation of Business

A company needs to know how well they are progressing on their environmental goals and objectives. Tesco integrates the management of environmental, as well as social and ethical issues into their Steering Wheel-the tool they use to manage the company both on a day-to-day and long-term basis. Each quadrant of the Steering Wheel contains key performance indicators (KPIs) with annual targets, and our Corporate Responsibility KPIs are contained within 'the way we operate is responsible and safe' segment of the Operations quadrant. In this way, environmental, social and ethical targets are integrated into the overall running of the business.

Identify Return on Investment

As an incentive and a mechanism for making decisions, identifying a projected return on investment for proposed environmental initiatives is a useful tool. For example, for H-E-B, it is important to estimate the return on investment (ROI) for all of the environmental programs that are considered. Whether the ideas come from within or the company is approached by outside suppliers to adopt a new program, the same approach is used.

Recruit External Corporate Advisors Ito-Yokado

An outside advisor can give unbiased advice and evaluations to a company regarding their environmental efforts. In 2003, Ito-Yokado established external corporate behaviour advisors. They are there to provide an objective and comprehensive evaluation of Ito-Yokado's overall corporate behaviour, including our environmental efforts.

This synopsis was compiled from case studies in the Greening Retail Best Practice Database. Sources for the information in the case studies are cited in the database.

This database contains links to case studies of environmental best practice from retailers around the world. You can search this database by the name of the company only, or you can find case studies that match one or several specific criteria, such as the type of retailer, the type of best practice, the company's country of origin, and/or project return on investment.

Simply select your search criteria in the spaces provided and hit the "search" button to come up with a list of the kinds of case studies you're looking for.

Please note that we cannot include all the practices of every retailer; therefore, the non-inclusion of a company, or of a certain area of practice for a company, does not mean that they do not presently have progressive environmental initiatives in these areas.

If you would like to submit a case study to be added to the database, please contact greeningretail@trca.on.ca.