Food-to-go retailer Greggs is set to introduce several new greener initiatives into its business operations following the conclusion of its internal sustainability challenge.
The competition prompted staff to generate ideas aimed at helping Greggs become greener, improve its relationship with the planet, and support it in becoming a more responsible business in general.
Staff from the retailer’s supply chain, shops, and offices submitted their sustainability challenge ideas, and eight were selected to pitch to a panel which included several of the business’s leaders as well as representatives from Greggs’ waste management partner, Biffa, the sponsor of the event.
Greggs has promised the winning ideas are set to become reality within the business, and it said it will announce the selected initiatives in due course.
Proposed schemes included enriching local ecosystems, community kitchen gardens promoting food security, plastic reduction work, and engagement forums. The finalists were invited to Greggs head office in Newcastle to present their ideas to CEO Roisin Currie, supply chain director Gavin Kirk, commercial director Malcolm Copeland, head of purchasing Alison Stephenson, and head of sustainability Paul Irwin-Rhodes.
Michael Topham, CEO of Biffa, and Catherine Maden, Greggs’ account manager at Biffa, were also on the panel.
On a promotional video for the sustainability challenge, Irwin-Rhodes said: “The principle behind this was to try and get 30,000 of our colleagues engaged with giving us their sustainability ideas – things that we might not come up with ourselves, things that might sit outside of our normal business-as-usual activity, and something that’s at the heart or very important to those colleagues who have come up with those ideas.”
He added: “We thought this was a really special opportunity to do something in partnership with Biffa and really get some great ideas coming into us and have a chance for people to add to our wider sustainability agenda.”
Currie said topics that came up in the sustainability challenge included biodiversity and how Greggs can minimise its impact on the environment.
“It has been inspirational,” she explained.
“I cannot wait to see some of these ideas come to life and be implemented across the business.”
Read more about Greggs greener retailing work on Green Retail World
[Image credit: Greggs]
1 thought on “Generating green ideas: Greggs sets sustainability challenge to staff”
This is brilliant. I’ve heard of a UK business using plastic waste industrial bins to make into plastic troughs for vertical gardens: living walls. You have the plastic in-house?