Responsible Retail
As we get back to “normal” at retail, after a once in a century pandemic, minds of consumers and brands are turning back to concerns about financial health, economic and social fairness and equity, and our environment. Retail is on the front lines of each these macro topics.
Patagonia, who has been a steward of the environment and triple bottom line thinking since its founding, won this year’s VMSD Peter Glenn Retailer of the Year award at the International Retail Design Conference. Research is showing growing shopper desire to buy from brands that are doing good for the environment. And the science about the negative affects we are having on our climate and planet are irrefutable. From chocolate to clothing, retail has the power to hurt, and help our environment for many generations to come.
Retailers, brands, and shoppers can improve the impact physical retail commerce has our environment. Here are some of our thoughts on how retail can be more environmentally responsible.
Design For The Environment
Design is 10% of the process but influences 90% of the environmental (and social, and financial) impact (good or bad) we as humans have on our world. I made the percentages up but I’d bet it all they are pretty darn close. We can and should be designing a better world. That coupled with better corporate and consumer knowledge and action, would allow us to have an infinitely sustainable world. My personal triple bottom line bible is ‘Cradle to Cradle’. McDonough and Braungart take a logical approach to sustainability that assures all generations benefit from a clean and healthy world while maintaining economic prosperity.
Material selection - Corrugate and metal are my favorite materials for retail experiences. I doubt that either material reaches a landfill at end of life because they have value and are easily recycled. Both should be the first option for any retail design project. Because plastic lasts 500+ years, it should only used sparingly in retail displays that last between <1-7 years. As a retailer or brand, be strategic with your plastic use, use recyclable plastic materials and recover them at “end of life”.
Design for Dissasembly and Recovery - A great way to assure what you put out into the world doesn’t end up in a landfill is to take it back. Implement lease programs for products and built retail experiences. At end of life, as a retailer, brand or manufacturer, take back and recover, recycle, or properly dispose of these items. Designers can facilitate this by designing products not only out of the right materials, but making it easy to take them apart and return products to their “natural” state. The concept of disassembly and recovery also included making product easy to repair and update.
Modular and Up-dateable Solutions - Modularity is a foundational tenant of EVERY project we work on for several reasons. From an environmental standpoint, modular solutions last longer in the marketplace and solve for more instances than bespoke solutions, so there are environmental savings due to scale. It is better to retrofit or update an existing experience or product than design, build, and install a new one.
Build a Solid, Multifaceted In-Store Strategy
A smart retail strategy can help you save cost and lesson your environmental footprint. By working smarter and harder you can make a positive impact within your current operating environment.
Let Packaging Do Some Heavy Lifting - Smartly designed packaging can reduce the need for displays, or amplify the investment of your retail display program without adding more “stuff” to our retail spaces. Tactics like color blocking and conveying information in an easy to understand manner can attract shoppers to your product, help them navigate the retail space, and inform ultimately leading to more sales with less negative impact. The most environmentally friendly display is one you don’t have to make. Make the physical packaging easy to open, and make it out of paper based materials or other materials that are sustainable (easy to recycle, replenish-able, non-toxic, etc.).
Technology With Purpose - Technology at retail almost always requires electricity, and materials that are difficult to recycle or reuse unless you have a system set up to do so. We aren't saying don’t implement technology, today it’s requisite for many product to inform and excite shoppers. But do so strategically. After all you are inventing a lot of money in something that needs to serve a purpose and requires maintenance. Storyboard the entire shopper experience THEN apply technology as needed to fulfill your concept. Some of our favorite tools are color changing LED lighting because it’s programable and is a simple way to set the mood. Our parent company, LYNX Innovation, makes a touch controller for retail that is simply updated with a new graphic when you want to add or take away buttons without having to manufacture a whole new component.
Strong Logistics and Sourcing - Often a good logistics strategy is focused on cost savings. Efficiency is good for your finances and the environment. This is often the first, and unfortunately only, place manufacturers, brands and retailers look to be “less bad” because there’s a direct correlation to cost savings and environmental stewardship. You will get credit for these efforts - reducing transportation emissions, lessoning material usage, recycling unused material, installing LED lighting in your warehouse - but if you’re not doing more, consumers and clients won’t really think you’re doing much. Sourcing, facility, and logistics efficiency are table stakes today.
Knowledge and Attitude
You know what is relatively inexpensive or even free? Learning and changing your perspective and attitude. Brands, Retailers, AND shoppers can always be learning more and acting more to improve our environmental situation for ourselves and future generations. There is no shortage of information and proven strategies and tactics to make sustainability improvements.
Find a Partner - Ever watch (or read) ‘The Hobbit’ or watch a Marvel movie? Pretty much every journey to something rewarding and honorable is better with strategic friends. Consultancies like our friends at Venture Forward Strategies can help you understand how your are affecting the environment and work with you to create real world, economically responsible strategies to improve or eliminate environmental harm. Collaborate with your competitors to enact industry-wide change, that benefits everyone’s triple bottom line.
Get Insightful - Talk to shoppers, your team, and suppliers to understand sentiment and current practices. Read books and articles. Watch TED talks on YouTube. Education and knowledge is the fertile soil that action grows from. Understand your product or service’s REAL impact on the environment by conducting life-cycle analysis. Innovate in how you manufacture, distribute, and dispose of what you put out into the world. Measure your progress and report out to the marketplace.
Make It Foundational - Make environmental sustainability part of your brand or organization’s DNA. Shoppers demand sustainable products, brands, and shopping experiences. We can not design and implement retail experiences, or products, and tag on environmental sustainability at the last minute. Shoppers (and clients) are savvy and will see right past it. For manufacturers, more and more brands are demanding you have a clear plan, metrics, and results that you can communicate, otherwise do not apply to work with them. The shift in attitude towards triple bottom line thinking has to be foundational…fundamental, to get beyond just being less bad, and achieve responsibility. Sustainability should be on everyone’s role and responsibility in your organization.
Hopefully these tips are helpful (and not preachy). The environmental sustainability journey is a worthy and rewarding one for everyone. And it’s often tied directly to cost savings, or cost avoidance. There are plenty more things you can do as a brand, or retailer to help the environment, and many of those actions will be unique to you.
Everything we share here is our point of view. No one was compensated and vice versa, no one compensated us for a shout out. We work with a diverse ecosystem of providers, and draw inspiration and knowledge from a wide range of resources. If we can be of help with your sustainability journey, visit us at www.neon-carrot.com or email me at chris@neon-carrot.com