Friday, June 15, 2007

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Tesco have introduced what they call 'naked deliveries', an attempt to reduce the 4 billion bags their grocery delivery service uses every year. I'm trying to imagine what 4 billion bags looks like and how much oil and energy is used to produce them. It's quite hard. But it is a fitting response to consumers concerns which at the moment are focussed on packaging and recycling. Tesco's website today 13.06.07 has information right in the middle of their home page about the scheme.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Dixons CEO calls for an end to standby

The Energy Saving Trust estimates that an average home in UK has 12 appliances on standby at any one time. Dixons CEO John Clare is meeting suppliers today to call for the end to the standby button on electrical goods. Dixons are the latest company to attempt to reduce energy use of its products. Recently Philips announced a 'green tick' logo to denote more energy efficient goods.

Although the Dixons item made the national news, I didn't find any mention of it - or the company's sustainability policies - on Dixons homepage. Companies announcing these types of schemes should support the news with information on their websites if they want to get their message across to both customers and business contacts.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

As the Carbon Trust's work shows, there is pressure on the airline industry to react to consumer and legislative pressures. The reaction of the airline industry varies widely, but regional carrier flybe has launched a scheme to alert customers to carbon offsetting. Using a traffic light system the airline aims to help customers decide whether to offset the carbon or not.

Morrisons flags recyclable levels, Sainsbury's focus on sourcing


Hot on the heels of the Carbon Trust campaign comes announcements from two supermarkets. The first from Morrisons is a scheme launched to help customers identify which goods can be recycled.

Our Ethical Reputation Index research shows a lot of people are confused about their role reducing waste and energy - so this scheme should be welcome news to consumers. Two-thirds of people surveyed on the ERI says that they no longer see recycled products as cheaper or inferior alternatives.

And Sainsbury's have announced a scheme to highlight provenance and British sourcing of food.

Meanwhile, Asda are about to launch a new campaign to highlight local sourcing of their milk, reports Brand Republic.

Food quality and sourcing is a big issue for shoppers. Our ERI research shows a quarter of UK's supermarket shoppers are interested in local sourcing . However they're even more concerned about packaging - nearly half are trying to avoid too much packaging when they go shopping.

Carbon Trust new campaign to help business




The Carbon Trust has launched a campaign to persuade business to do find more ways of reducing carbon output. News of the story is featured here.

Looking for a picture of the Carbon Trust I came across this instead - a diagram showing the market value at risk if sectors do not act to reduce carbon emissions. A difficult thing to calculate I'd imagine, but the relative positions seem pretty logical with aviation and energy most exposed.