Even with the excellent progress already made in such a short period of time, retailers are determined to push even further
Stephen Robertson, director general, BRC
After managing to send 32% of their waste to landfill last year, the 18 firms who have signed up to the British Retail Consortium's (BRC) 'Better Retail Climate' commitments, including Asda, Boots, Marks and Spencer and Tesco, will now look to landfill less than 25% of their waste by 2013, after originally aiming to landfill less than 50% of their waste by 2013.
The report, 'A Better Retailing Climate Progress Report 2009', also revealed that, between 2005 and 2008, the signatories to the commitment had achieved a 55%, or 130,000 tonne, reduction by weight in the amount of waste they sent to landfill.
Stephen Robertson, director general of the BRC, said: “Even with the excellent progress already made in such a short period of time, retailers are determined to push even further. They have decided to ratchet up their green commitments by setting themselves even tougher targets to reduce their property energy emissions and landfill waste by 2013.”
The retail sector trade body claimed retailers had achieved the goal through a range of initiatives such as higher recycling rates and converting organic waste to biogas and fertiliser through anaerobic digestion.
In the report, the BRC pointed to individual retailer initiatives and targets which had helped to achieve the landfill goal. For example, it highlighted the John Lewis Partnership's commitment to diverting 95% of waste away from landfill and Next introducing its own in-house recycling service.
Commenting on the report, Ian Lucas, minister for business and regulatory reform, said: “It's really good to see how much retailers have achieved in meeting a wide range of environmental targets. They can see that it makes good business sense as they benefit from efficiency savings as well as helping consumers to play their part.”
Recycling
The BRC also pointed to the initiatives retailers were adopting to help combat climate change, such as the launch of a standardised on-pack recycling label in March this year. The label, which has been adopted by 50 brands and retailers, is designed to help customers understand whether packaging can be recycled (see letsrecycle.com story).
Other goals identified by the BRC include halving the number of single-use carrier bags taken by consumers between 2006 and 2009.
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