Why packaging matters for CSR

British supermarkets have been fighting to demonstrate how their CSR strategies make them better than their competitors for some years now. One of the issues which has caused them all headaches is that of packaging.

This week we saw that supermarkets, and other grocery stores, missed a voluntary target to reduce packaging waste. Retailers produced a consistent 2.9m tonnes of packaging between 2006 and 2009. Despite packaging reduction featuring heavily as part of supermarkets’ CSR programmes, they failed to make the grade. The reason given for this was sales growth – the more goods sold, the more packaging produced.

Both consumers and local authorities have taken exception to the amount of packaging that swaddles our supermarket purchases. For consumers it is because their eco-consciences rebel against the idea that four apples need to sit on a polystyrene tray wrapped in clingfilm. Local authorities are annoyed that this will all end up in landfill sites, costing them money.

Supermarkets are well aware of the ire packaging causes and so most have made it in important aspect of their CSR activities. All supermarkets have ‘packaging teams’, experts who examine how packaging can be reduced. Over the last five years in particular, supermarkets have put a lot of time and money into this area.

New technologies have helped supermarkets reduce packaging – which has positive impacts on the environment and on their bottom line. The less they have to produce, the less it costs them. This is not just about altruism – it makes business sense. Lightweighting of glass for example, has been an extremely positive development. Glass bottles are now on sale in supermarkets which are much lighter, but also much stronger. Recycling and waste experts WRAP, worked with supermarkets and glass manufacturers to design a bottle that weighs only 300g, weighing 188g than the average wine bottle. By any standards this is a CSR triumph. If this design was used for all wine sold in the UK it would save 153,000 tonnes of glass a year – equivalent to the weight of more than 460 jumbo jets – and cut CO2 emissions by 119,000 tonnes.

Although it is true that there is a lot of unnecessary packaging around the products we buy, it is also true that there is a lot of ignorance of the function that packaging performs. Packaging helps to reduce food waste by helping it last for longer. Food waste is a huge environmental issue, as the bulk of it in this country still ends up in landfill where it produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Research by the Cucumber Growers’ Association (CGA), for example, found that shrinkwrapping a cucumber can increase its shelf life by almost five times. Thus, a small piece of plastic can actually have a large environmental benefit.

So, packaging matters for CSR, both reducing it, but also communicating the benefits of it to shoppers. Honesty is vital though, and supermarkets need to be clear about where they still need to make strides in packaging reduction, as opposed to where the packaging is necessary, however strange that may seem.

Photo credit: viZZZual.com

Original Source: www.justmeans.com/Why-packaging-matters-for-CSR/32281.html