Transition Island Blog

Supermarkets, the original source of free plastic carrier bags, are now moving towards a greener approach.

green buildings

ASDA’s latest high efficiency store in Bootle, Merseyside is due to open in November 2008. The timber-framed store has many sustainable features, including recycled bricks, a recycled aluminium roof, rainwater harvesting and natural lighting. All this will help the store become 50% more energy efficient than a typical ASDA store.

Other supermarkets are also going the same route - eg Marks & Spencer’s first eco-store, opened late last year, uses 55% less power and is powered by turbine.

green transport

Last October Tesco started ferrying wine by barge from Liverpool to Manchester along the Manchester Ship Canal. The move took 50 lorries off the road every week and cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent, Tesco claimed. Tesco’s new cargo service involves three journeys a week, delivering an estimated 600,000 litres of wine on each journey along the 40-mile stretch of the canal.

green carbon

Marks & Spencer announced a £200m plan to make the company carbon neutral within five years. This would mean the company as a whole would become 25% more energy efficient and all 500-plus M&S stores would be powered with “green” renewable energy.

The plan was produced with the help of Jonathan Porritt, chair of the Sustainable Development Commission. He said M&S had set a new benchmark for others to follow. He said: “It raises the bar for everyone else - not just retailers, but businesses in every sector.”

green recycling

Co-operative Group said: “We have implemented a range of initiatives across all aspects of our activities over many years. Earlier this year we opened the largest in-house recycling centre in the North West and all Co-op household tissue including toilet rolls, kitchen towel & facial tissue is completely sourced from FSC-certified responsibly managed forests and recycling facilities.”  

greenwash & beyond

There is still some way to go. Only 3 per cent of consumers think that retailers are open and honest about their socially or environmentally-responsible actions. 33 per cent  believe that they exaggerate their green ethics claims. [more]

But progress has to start somewhere - the sooner the better!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Eco-News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.