Businesses linking up to sell sustainable products is 
not only good for the environment, but also a firm opportunity to attract eco-conscious customers in a tough retail climate, writes Andrew Collier

Retail customers are becoming more and more demanding when it comes to buying sustainable and sensitively packaged products. And it’s about a lot more these days than merely hunting down the wonky veg on the shelves.

According to a recent study by Retail Week and the legal business DWF, nearly half of UK consumers are more concerned about environmental impacts than they were a year before. Some 29% are now actively shopping with companies promoting ethical or sustainable packages.

Modern, green-conscious shoppers know exactly what they want. Their top demands are plastic free produce and packaging, compostable carrier bags, plant-based foods, natural fabric clothes and clothing resale and recycling schemes.

The message is clear. Selling sustainably may help the climate and therefore be a good thing in itself, but it’s also extremely sound business. In what is currently an extremely tough retail climate, it can be a real differentiator in attracting customers. 

To maximise the impact of this growing demand, retailers and social enterprises with a real commitment to sustainable trading need to grow and develop their links with each other. 

These enterprises, 70% of which are led by and accountable to local communities, supply a wide range of ethical products, helping to meet demand from the big retail buyers wanting to burnish their green credentials.

So there’s a strong mutual interest in getting it right. To further build links across the industry north of the border, the finance and development organisation Social Investment Scotland (SIS) is bringing the two sides together at a residential Retail Academy in Falkirk during May.

“Ethical products with a social purpose are in much greater demand among consumers across the country, these days,” says Alastair Davis, the Chief Executive of SIS. The organisation is itself a charity and social enterprise and has invested £63 million in more than 300 organisations across Scotland since it launched in 2001. This is the third retail academy we’ve run and the previous ones have been a success,” he adds. 

“The event is about facilitating relationships. We hope that ultimately, social enterprises will be able to secure supply deals and be stocked by the retailers involved.

“Essentially, the academy is a pitch – a meet-the-buyer process. But as well as that, they have the opportunity to learn from the retailers and receive mentoring and guidance. Early stage social enterprises can then make an informed decision about if these are business opportunities they want to pursue.”

The event might also open up investment opportunities, providing funding to qualifying social enterprises. The finance can come from SIS itself or from one of its support programmes. The social enterprises taking part may be able to strike a deal with one of the big retailers involved or take advantage of the mentoring and education they offer. 

“Someone may not get a deal but learn a lot about how they can grow their business in other says,” explains Alastair Davis. “If that’s the case, we would be entirely happy with that.

“There’s a whole raft of evidence showing that consumers are becoming more interested in supply chains and the retailers are aware of that. It’s what shoppers are looking for and it can help to retain business. This sort of event also serves to make retailers more aware of what social enterprises are doing.”

Social enterprises are now an important part of the Scottish business landscape. A census carried out in 2017 showed there were 5,600 such operations north of the border, with a third located in rural areas and almost two thirds – 64% – led by women. Total annual income was estimated at £3.8 billion.

One of the highlights of the academy will be a pitching session, where each social enterprise will be invited to explain its products. Retailers will be encouraged to provide their own expert feedback and help each potential supplier refine its pitches for future product listing opportunities.

The retailers will also have the opportunity to continue their discussions with individual enterprises and if appropriate to offer product listings in their stores. This year’s main sponsor for the event is the supermarket chain Asda. 

It has been involved in previous academies and has already established trade relationships with a number of social enterprises including the Edinburgh craft brewery Brewgooder, a supplier that donates all its profits to clean water enterprises. Its lager is now available in more than 200 supermarkets.

Polly Jones, Asda’s Corporate Affairs Manager, says that the SIS Retail Academy has been an excellent way for the retail chain to throw its weight behind the social enterprise movement.
“We have also discovered new products which we’ve been able to introduce to our stores across the UK. 

“By harnessing the power of our retail experience and expertise alongside our store estate and online shopping division, we can help social enterprises to enter the large retail market while providing our customers with better access to ethical products.”

The deadline for social enterprises to apply to take part in the academy, which runs between May 29 and 31, is March 17.

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Drive forward use of public transport

Government must help prioritise buses as a sustainable method of travel, says Paul White Deputy Director of  CPT UK Scotland 

The Scottish Transport Statistics, published last week, should serve as a wake-up call to those tasked with reducing Scotland’s transport emissions. 

Bus remains by far the most-used public transport mode with more than 388 million passenger journeys each year. However, despite heavy investment from operators in new fleet and the latest smart technologies, bus patronage has fallen by 8% over the past five years. 

The statistics also show that operating costs per bus journey remain higher in Scotland than the UK average. This, and an 11% reduction over the past five years in funding from local and national government, has a real impact on the bus industry with consequences for both fares and services.

It is not just the commercial bus market that is suffering in this climate. Due to budgetary pressures, some Scottish local authorities have taken the tough decision to end funding for supported bus services altogether.  

The picture is especially bleak when you consider that delivering air quality improvement by tackling car use is dependent on providing a viable, attractive public transport alternative. 

A recent KPMG study found that there are many contributing factors to bus patronage decline in Scotland including the low cost of car ownership, increasing congestion, and the growth in online shopping (less shopping trips to the high street). KPMG concluded that 75% of the factors that impact on bus patronage are outwith bus companies’ control. As such, coverage which lays blame for patronage decline solely at the feet of bus operators is wide 
of the mark. 

Bus companies want to carry more people. However, the bus sector requires political will and brave leadership – nationally and locally - to create a supportive framework that prioritises sustainable and active travel. It is 20 years since John Prescott labelled the bus a workhorse “familiar, even friendly, but rather dull and unexciting.” 

Sadly, we’re still fighting that uninformed perception today. More still has to be done to put bus and bus passengers on an equal standing with other modes. 

Bus passengers can only look on with envy at projects like the refurbishment of Glasgow Queen Street Station (£120m for 16 million passenger trips per annum) or the delivery of the Subway refurbishment programme (£290m for 13 million passenger trips per annum). Meanwhile Buchanan Bus Station, responsible for 13 million bus journeys per annum, is due to be refurbished at the cost of £580k. The disparity in funding between modes is staggering. 

The Scottish Government will shortly embark on a new Scottish Transport Projects Review (STPR) this summer. The review will look at means to address government aims around reducing emissions and improving journey times, quality, accessibility and affordability. 

More grand projects that cater for the car or allocate huge chunks of funding for small but expensive rail schemes are not the answer.

I hope the STPR process will acknowledge the importance of the comparatively low-cost infrastructure improvements required to make walking or cycling easier and safer – and bus journey times quicker and more reliable. This latter ask could form part of a local Bus Partnership with local operators committing to service improvements in return. 

Meeting Scotland’s air quality targets means getting people out of cars and onto more sustainable modes of transport. Nobody will leave their car behind when there’s no viable, attractive transport alternative. Providing a framework for bus patronage growth is a key piece in the air quality jigsaw. 

Hopefully these recent statistics serve their purpose and Scotland’s bus passengers, responsible for 74% of all public transport trips, become a priority and not an afterthought within Scotland’s  transport policy. 

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Project makes world our oyster

Conservation is the aim of the ‘£1 Billion Challenge’ where private, public and non-profit partners drive investment in Scotland’s natural environment

AN ambitious new initiative aims to pioneer new ways of funding nature conservation in Scotland through the launch of the £1 Billion Challenge. 

Led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), the Scottish Conservation Finance Project aims to generate new forms of investment in Scotland’s stocks of natural capital in ways that will deliver significant environmental, social and economic benefits, as well as returns for investors.

Natural capital can be defined as the world’s stocks of natural assets which include geology, soil, air, water and all living things.

The project brings together organisations from the private, public and non-profit sectors to develop cutting-edge investment and funding models for large-scale nature conservation activities, for example planting native woodlands, restoring oyster reefs and creating urban green spaces. 
 

“Globally, investment in nature needs to increase substantially to meet the growing challenges posed by climate change and biodiversity loss,” says Jonny Hughes, Chief Executive of the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

“Scotland was among the first nations in the world to pledge support for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and has been at the forefront of a number of pioneering environmental initiatives, including the World Forum on Natural Capital. 

“The aim of this new initiative is to provide a practical opportunity to come together, exchange ideas and collectively achieve a lasting impact. Ultimately we want to begin to drive billions of pounds of investment into Scottish conservation in the coming years.”

According to a 2016 report by Credit Suisse AG and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, an estimated $300-$400 billion per year is needed globally to preserve healthy ecosystems on land and in the oceans. Currently only around $52 billion is available per year, mostly in the form of public and philanthropic funds. 

Terry A’Hearn, Chief Executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, said: “In Scotland, we currently using the resources of three planets, but only have one. 

“Good leaders say – there’s only one planet, we have to work within it. But great leaders say – how do we turn this from a threat into an opportunity for our organisation? The Scottish Conservation Finance Project is an exciting opportunity to bring the right people together to meet this challenge.”

The £1 billion Challenge was showcased in London last week at the Natural Capital Investment Conference at the Royal Society, following its successful launch in Edinburgh in early February.