High Streets Go Green As Retailers Make Changes

 

We see the purchasing of goods almost as a reward for and a break from the working day and the care we give to our families and friends. So how can we still enjoy this pastime without ruining the planet?

 

Thanks to consumer pressure brought about by a greater understanding of our environmental impact, retailers are changing their ways and becoming greener. Taking their lead from environmental charities and organisations, shopping centres and stores themselves are trying to educate consumers about how to reduce their carbon footprint.

 

Shopping centre developers are designing complexes that use natural light, that don’t require energy-sapping air con and heating, and make use of renewable energy such as solar or wind power. They don’t want your shopping trip to be a guilt trip either. The idea is to minimise the impact of physical shopping centres, which in total generate 800,000 tonnes of waste and use over 60 GW of energy every year.

 

Shops are taking a stand by auditing their own supply chains and withdrawing or adapting products that leave a damaging carbon footprint. At M&S all tea and coffee is now Fairtrade, all eggs are free range and organic, and even a proportion of clothing is now produced using Fairtrade cotton. And in high street fashion, retailers from TopShop to Selfridges are introducing ethical brands into their ranges.

 

If big business can make the effort, then surely we can too. The reality is that shopping itself does take a toll on the environment. Embarking on long car journeys to out-of-town retail parks without a definite purchase in mind, is wasting valuable resources and pumping carbon into the already threatened atmosphere. Online shopping, or at least using the internet to compare prices and check availability, has far less impact on the environment. Online retailers are quick to boast of their green credentials: They don’t waste energy heating vast stores, they assist the reduction of shopping road miles, and even when they deliver goods, real efforts are being made to be carbon-efficient.

 

You could save money, and prolong the life of existing products – so important to modern eco-living. Today, there’s more to green shopping than a trip to a health food store on a local high street.

 

*Top ten high street retailers going green

The Co-op

Marks & Spencer Group PLC

Tesco PLC

Boots

Home Retail Group (GUS PLC)

Sainsbury (J) PLC

Next PLC

ASDA

Morrisons

Somerfield

 

*This list was compiled by the BBC’s Money Programme Special How Green Is Your High Street? The survey was conducted by environmental research organisation Trucost, which calculated the carbon and waste emissions of ten of the biggest names on the high street based on the companies’ own figures.

 

By Martin Huckle