First comes the internal change and stakeholder buy-in, then the customers can be hooked into the sustainability mission.
That is the view of Camille Caron, CSR leader at fashion and accessories retailer Kiabi, who says securing that cross-company mandate to drive forward with sustainability measures is where success in this field for retailers happens.
Caron was talking on a panel at the inaugural NRF Big Show in Europe, which is running in Paris throughout this week.
Others on the panel, chaired and moderated by Retail Week’s editor Charlotte Hardie, were Emma Recco, business development at Ikea France, and Francesco Pinto, chairman & co-founder of lingerie brand Yamamay.
Between them they acknowledged how more regulation in the sustainability space is a double-edged sword. It’s needed for true action to happen, but at the same time it can cause stress and high workloads within a retail organisation, Pinto noted.
During the session, the retailers made clear some of the initiatives they have been working on in recent years. Yamamy is creating product IDs with information about product materials and provenance so it is prepared for the imminent Digital Product Passport legislation, while Caron said there is “a big gap” in efficiency that all retailers should work on to improve their sustainability credentials.
Recco said it is “good business to be a good business”, and highlighted how Ikea France is using the Seine river for deliveries by boat. The retailer is looking to use trains more frequently for distribution too, as it looks to minimise its carbon footprint as its online business continues to grow.
Ikea’s online business was around 10% of overall sales pre-pandemic in 2020 but that is closer to 30% today.
“It’s good to be the first because we try and test, and hope it will be used by other companies in the future,” Recco said of the fulfilment services by boat.
“We have a responsibility as a brand.”
Both Pinto and Caron spoke about the importance of data in driving better sustainability – Pinto said a PLM system is a positive way of sharing all the relevant information across stakeholders in a business, helping get suppliers and the retailer on the same page.
Caron said for sustainability to get wider buy-in, teams in charge of this division must “prove return on investment” – and that means getting hold of the “right data”, she argued.
The panellists agreed better materials needs to be a focus if retailers are serious about making sustainability gains. “When we look at carbon footprint, it’s not [primarily] operations or deliveries, it’s in the product – so we need to produce better material,” Recco noted.
Read more about NRF’s Big Show Europe
[image credit: Green Retail World]
