Leading suppliers and producers continue to put sustainability front and centre, highlighting opportunities for retailers to appeal to environmentally conscious consumers.
Sustainability is among the key challenges – and opportunities – for local retailers in Scotland. It’s becoming increasingly clear that more and more shoppers are choosing to buy (or avoid) retailers and brands according to their perceived sustainability credentials.
Leading producers and suppliers have certainly embraced this trend and sustainability is front and centre for many of them.
Lucozade, for example, has recently launched a new multimedia campaign called ‘It’s On’ which has been created to “bring to life the positive energy that embodies Lucozade and that feeling you have when you’re ready to take on whatever’s ahead” while also highlighting sustainability: the main character in the ad kicks things off by throwing his empty Lucozade Energy bottle into the recycling bin.
The growth of the ‘green pound’ represents an enormous opportunity for retailers and it’s a trend that is only going to go in one direction.
Miriam Thompson, Off-Trade Category Marketing Executive at BrewDog, comments: “We are increasingly seeing customers making conscious decisions about brands which hold sustainable and eco credentials.
“In 2020 we made a commitment – to Make Earth Great Again. We are determined to rapidly and fundamentally change the way we work as we aspire to set a new global standard for sustainability. We know we won’t be perfect, but we want to strive to do our best and encourage other businesses to do the same, showcasing that business can be a force for good.”
BrewDog says it is the first carbon negative beer business, meaning that it removes twice as much carbon from the atmosphere as it emits each year.
“We are also doing all we can to drive our emissions to zero,” adds Thompson. “From productions to supply chain, we calculate our impact and design removal initiatives.
“We use many techniques to reduce our Scope Three emissions and aim for carbon savings across every aspect of the business, including our supply chains, focussing on the most important areas.
“The key actions we are taking include maximising the use of our waste; switching to renewable electricity; packaging improvements, including moving almost entirely away from bottles to cans; improving our brewing efficiency; and reducing flights.”
So far, BrewDog says it has reduced its electricity use by 43% and water consumption by 55%. “But we’re not stopping there,” says Thompson. “We plan to achieve net zero production emissions from our Ellon facility by 2023 and aim to plant over 1.1 million native trees in our Lost Forest and restore peatland, to avoid significant volumes of CO2e being released into the atmosphere.”
