Donald Trump’s impending second term as US president is looming but retailers and the wider business community will continue their work in driving towards more sustainable processes and operations regardless of experts calling into question his green agenda intentions.
Meanwhile, brands and retail organisations are working on finding areas of business where if they invest in sustainability strategy now they know they can make a big difference, quickly. On the flip side, it is likely some of the ambitious net zero targets retailers established as they started to get serious about decarbonisation at the end of the last decade will need to be reset.
These were among the main talking points as Green Retail World brought together sustainability leaders for its inaugural breakfast roundtable on 7 November. The event took place at London’s Haymarket Hotel, and featured senior representatives from Amazon, Boohoo, Colart, Decathlon, Faith in Nature, Halfords, N Brown, Nespresso, Pentland Brands, PepCo Group, The White Company, and Wickes.
The conversation ran under the Chatham House Rule, but we’ve picked out five key topics and included some anonymised quotes that give a sense of the direction of travel the retail industry is taking in terms of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy. These are insights directly from those on the frontline.
“Business continues as usual”
The roundtable took place in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s presidential election victory in the US. Famously – or infamously, in sustainability circles – one of the early announcements during his first term as president was to set the wheels in motion to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate – a non-binding pledge by circa 200 countries to reduce planet-warming pollution.
The country eventually left in 2020 before returning under President Biden’s tenure. But analysts suggest Trump will take the decision to reverse that reversal once he’s in the White House again, calling into question one of the world’s superpowers’ ability and willingness to make progress in the sustainability space.
Nevertheless, as one roundtable guest put it, “business continues as usual”.
“We take the longer-term view with sustainability strategy. It will be bumpy, but companies understand the challenge and they want to keep going.”
Another added: “The green machine is going and it’s not going to stop – this is already in motion.”
One attendee also suggested that consumers are in a different place with sustainability than they were in 2016 when Trump was elected for the first time, meaning the general sentiment for sustainability work is more positive.
“Ambitious but not impossible”
Delegates discussed how the raft of targets established over the last five years – many of which are working towards a position of net zero at some stage in the next 25 years – might need revising. Some businesses have stated goals to ensure some parts of their supply chain are net zero by 2030, but there is a growing realisation within the industry that several of these will need to be pushed back.
“Things have changed due to a very different consumer environment to when we set these targets,” one roundtabler said in reference to the cost of living crisis and the impact this has had on trading and therefore profitability.
Companies are going to have to put their hands up and go to the market admitting they haven’t reached the targets they initially set, they added.
Another guest asked the big question: “How do you go green without going into the red?”
Some of the answers to this question put forward included integrating sustainability into financials and helping boards and the market realise that there is a need for a “different definition of what value is”.
One attendee commented: “We’ve created lots of targets around transparency and getting the supply chain data we need, and making sure we are using that information properly.
“Our overall decarbonisation targets are ambitious but not impossible.”
Product and manufacturers
One roundtable delegate spoke about how their business has established monthly meetings with manufacturers to try and accelerate a move towards a more sustainable supply chain.
It was estimated by one retailer during the discussion that approximately 98% of the carbon in the supply chain is in the products retailers are selling, highlighting the long journey required and widescale supply chain work needed to make any significant impact.
Guests mentioned that post-Covid it looked like retailers were going to start reducing the length of their supply chains and bring product sourcing and manufacturing closer to home. But this has not been widespread and the trend looks to have reversed again.
Others suggested that sustainability criteria is being build into tenders and contracts with suppliers – and the quickest route to progress here, naturally, is to focus on the largest suppliers first.
Underling the importance of taking action and working closely with suppliers sooner rather than later, one retailer said some production of food and beverage ingredients “could become unviable due to the climate crisis” so regenerative farming needs to build momentum quickly in order to address this situation.
The virtuous circle
Embracing the second-hand market was referenced as a clear way for retailers to tick the boxes of driving more circular and sustainable behaviours among their shoppers and finding additional revenue streams at a challenging time economically.
Research published by second-hand online marketplace Vinted and analyst group Retail Economics, in November, suggests UK consumers will spend over £2 billion on second-hand gifts during the Christmas 2024 period, with these products anticipated to account for more than 10% of all gift spending.
Some 84% of shoppers stated they were likely to spend a proportion of their budget on pre-loved Christmas gifts, highlighting the strength of the market.
Guests at the roundtable agreed the growth of pre-loved in retail had taken them by surprise.
“We know we have to cut down on raw materials,” explained one attendee, who called on retailers to incentivise staff on circular turnover and talked about the need for chief sustainability officers to take on the role of “chief value officers” and find the business case for introducing initiatives such as second-hand business streams.
“Look down the mountain”
During the debate, retailers shifted from hope to despair when discussing the challenges they face in keeping the sustainability drive in motion within their organisations.
One talked up their company’s ability to meet the easy ESG targets but they also spoke of the “frustration” of needing to regularly “re-baseline” their eco goals. Others reflected on the “huge challenge” of re-engaging their board on ESG after becoming distracted by other events and a slowdown in trading, and there were also concerns raised about the value in gaining Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) validation.
Over the years, the SBTi has established itself as the go-to ESG target validation organisation, but recent internal disputes relating to how the group measures carbon reduction progress and whether it includes controversial carbon credits in that process have not gone unnoticed by the retail industry. The situation there has clearly caused concern about its processes, with some retailers saying they are holding off from working directly with the SBTi for now.
Amid it all, though, a clear message of hope was conveyed by one of the roundtable guests.
“Always look down the mountain,” they said, highlighting the importance of reflecting on progress organisations have made with sustainability strategy compared to just a decade ago.
“There’s so much still in front of us and so much mountain to climb that you can forget to reflect on achievements, and there have been many. That’s something we should all do.”
Green Retail World would like to thank all attendees for a great discussion. If you’re a retailer keen to join similar forums, please get in touch as we’ll be running more of these events throughout 2025. If you’re a retail industry supplier and you’d like to get in a room as a sponsor and get involved in the debate with some of the brightest retail minds around, please drop Ben Sillitoe a line for more information.
[image credits: Green Retail World]
