Eco-tailing, green retailing, green-tailing, no matter which way you slice it, conducting business while respecting the environment is a current trend and the way of the future. The concept of green retailing may seem complicated, from which bags to use, to what shipping companies to employ, to the very products being purchased and sold. However, some retailers have adopted the attitude of being good corporate citizens, without worrying too much about how complicated the approach could be.
Darlene Sanders, of the Avant Gardener Inc. in West Vancouver, is one such retailer. “I’ve been green for as long as my business has been around”, says the 19-year retail veteran. For Sanders, considering the environment wasn’t a marketing ploy or a concept created to increase her business, it was simply an extension of her personal beliefs. “I come from a family that has always recycled and been conscious of the environment because it’s the right thing to do.”
Without a manual or ‘how to’ guide, Sanders has built her business around environmentally sound business practices – from buying smart, to having her employees take home their cans and bottles to recycle after a shift – noting the latter rather sheepishly. “I don’t sell anything with pesticides or toxic chemicals in my store, as the pesticide course I took years ago taught me how really dangerous those things are”. Which is why, upon walking into her luxury garden store, you won’t smell any of those harsh chemical smells reserved for many garden centers. The herbs she retails are also organic, and most other products you find in this gardeners haven take the environment into consideration.
Instead of spraying wasps with pesticides, The Avant Gardener retails the ‘waspinator’ to keep away the wasps by making them think there’s already a hive in the yard. She hopes that by populating West Vancouver with bird feeders, they will bring more birds into the yard. The goods sold in her store promote fostering nature, rather than destroying it.
Sanders has also made it a habit to do fairly extensive research on the products she sells. She is always questioning: Is the product manufactured by a company that values safety and treats their employees in a humane fashion? Is the product sustainable? How does the cultivating of the primary resources used impact the environment? “I find out from the supplier where the products come from; for example, all the teak I retail is from a green plantation; I know they aren’t chopping down old growth rainforests in order for me to get my product.” Also, the raffia hats and bags she sells go directly to the artisans and help support Madagascar’s economy – one of the poorest economies in the world.
Though it is easy to encourage and promote nature in a garden store, there are other practices that Sanders has put into play that can be adopted by any retailer of any size. Requirements and expectations around sustainable practices for shipping and packaging could be encouraged by the retail industry. “I mostly use a shipping company that packs items with paper rather than plastic, as it is more recyclable” and she reuses the packing materials for her customers’ purchases. Because there is no city-provided cardboard recycling, she loads up her van once a month to take all the cardboard and paper to the recycling depot. Any bubble wrap is also either re-used and the extra is given to the UPS store across the street. What waste actually gets thrown into the garbage is quite minimal.
The energy that Sanders puts into thinking about and doing what’s best for the environment would be something that many businesses would shout from the rooftops about, however she has simply woven these practices into the fabric of her business without a splashy campaign. “I probably don’t ‘use’ it as much as I should. Customers are informed through one-on-one communication with me and my staff that everything we sell is ‘green’; I drill it into my staff because it’s important to me, however I don’t use it as a way to market my business.”
But Sanders questions whether the green trend today may be more lip service than anything else. “In the mid 90’s when recycling was the new big thing, many people asked for the purchase without the bag or with less packaging. Now, it seems like it’s going the other way, people often want things gift wrapped and then even in an extra bag.” She suggests that it may be time for more retailers to help consumers translate green shopping ideas into reality.
An avid gardener and co-chair of the World Rose Convention herself, you can’t help but feel organic and green amidst the gardens out front and back and the natural products to be found inside the store. Sanders says, “I try to sell what I would use” and for her, being an eco-tailer is as simple as that.
When it’s your own store, putting these kinds of practices into play is a little more manageable; however, when it’s a 700,000 square foot location, a little more planning and strategy needs to be employed to be ‘environmentally savvy.” This is the case with Lougheed Town Centre in Burnaby. However, they too achieved acclamation for their environmental efforts. Recently, the mall carried out energy audits, recycling programs and a communication program to get employees and tenants environmentally involved and to find ways to reduce energy use.
Although their primary business is retail property management, Beverly Diallo, Marketing Director with Lougheed Town Centre, notes that “our standing as contributing members of our community demands a certain level of social conscience.” Initially, the shopping centre didn’t set out to ‘go green’, but rather, just noticed that they had already implemented many eco-friendly business practices and decided to put in some extra effort into it in order to really become a ‘green’ location. Like Darlene Sanders and the Avant Gardener, it was the ‘right’ thing to do.
Being set apart from the rest of the pack as a ‘green’ shopping designation, is not detrimental to business either. “We wanted to be a leader among regional shopping centres, to be recognized for doing our part to preserve our environment” continues Diallo of their commitment. But to go out and advertise that they are an environmentally conscious mall to attract shoppers was not in the cards. “Although we have advertised our ‘Go Green’ certification in the Burnaby Newsleader and have posted Go Green decals on all our Mall entrances, we have not yet had the opportunity to measure the impact of this certification on our customers” though such positive press can’t help but cast a ‘greener’ and brighter light upon the mall.
Unlike what Sanders has found in her own store, recent research has shown that today’s consumers are extremely aware of issues that affect the environment and global warming; their shopping choices are more and more likely to be influenced by these issues. Diallo suggests that though it may be a challenge, the retail industry has the ability to keep abreast of these issues and maintain a high level of commitment to remain environmentally conscious.
While making smart choices for the environment is living and working as a good corporate citizen, many retailers suggest that the retail industry is based on consumer demand. Though the consumer is becoming more environmentally savvy – there is still the ongoing pressure of offering a wide range of products at a competitive price. And therein lays the challenge.
As a consumer yourself, would you change your shopping habits if you knew you were contributing to the long term health of the earth, or would it just make you feel a little better if you knew you made a ‘green’ choice? If nothing else, there is an opportunity here to sell wares to your customers making ‘feel good’ purchases. Isn’t that something to be shouted from the rooftops?
