As you all know from previous blogs, Asda’s view on helping people to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle is firmly rooted in encouraging positive behaviours, not penalising people for the choices they make. That’s why we want to make greener products mainstream, affordable and accessible, not as a niche, expensive option, for example.

As part of this, we have now teamed up with Prince Charles and his Start project. This project aims at encouraging people to take simple steps to conserve natural resources but in a positive way. In the Prince’s own words:

The idea behind Start came from a realisation that simply warning of rising tides, melting ice caps and collapsing fish stocks was irrelevant to ordinary, hard-pressed people. They are concerned – quite understandably – with other things, such as the economy, their health or the education of their children….Yet all the evidence shows that, in general, these same people want to do the right thing. For example, there are very few who are happy to eat unsustainably harvested fish if they know it will kill off stocks for future generations. There are few who wish to buy certain goods if they are told their production directly contributes to the destruction of the world’s rainforests and the extinction of tens of thousands of animal and plant species. However, people also want to eat delicious food whenever they choose, and want to buy goods and services that are fashionable and popular. Start, therefore, is all about demonstrating that these demands and desires are not mutually exclusive. It is about showing people that it is possible both to enjoy life and to protect nature.

We are very much behind this sentiment which is why we have stringent policies in place concerning our products sourcing.

Start is for everyone so to get involved now you can:

• Comment on their blog

• Come along to the Start garden party in royal gardens in London in September

Here are a couple of interesting articles on Start’s launch from the Press Association and the Telegraph.

This is a key project for us, so watch this space for regular updates on Start and what we are doing to support it.

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Well it turns out that we may not be that artistic after all (!) but nonetheless we offered our energy at least to a local school this week.

The Corporate Affairs Team went down to Victoria Primary School in Leeds to help carry out some renovations and general sprucing up.

The spirit of the school is very strong, as you can see from their sign above, but it is in a less affluent area of Leeds and so has its own issues to manage.

We had a brilliant day both in the knowledge that we were helping to improve the school for the kids but also as a team having the time to chat about non-work stuff.

We split into two teams. The first team, of which I was a part (spot the bright red T-shirt!), scrubbed wooden decking, sanded and painted raised beds, stained the now-dry decking and painted walls and a sand pit whilst the second team scrubbed, sanded and painted numerous picnic tables.

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I am really passionate that we not only have a responsibility to make our business more environmentally friendly and to help our customers tackle the eco crunch whilst saving money but also that we should use our learnings to help other companies.

I have spent the week so far in Edinburgh talking about the steps we have taken to reduce our carbon emissions and how this has given us significant cost reductions. However this is a drop in the ocean when you look at the reductions that will be mandated in the future – businesses which grasp this, like ourselves, will also gain a competitive advantage.

I was very privileged to be asked to present to The Scotsman Retail Conference on Tuesday where I talked about what we have done so far to reduce our own environmental impact but how this accounts for just 8% of our total impact when you consider our products (http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Green-benefits-to-Scots-businesses.6334188.jp). Our main focus now is on our supply chain and our products, to help our customers make the right choices at the right price. Being sustainable must not be the reserve of the rich but must be available to all Asda customers.

I would really like to hear from small and medium sized companies as to how we might be able to share our knowledge to help you learn from our sustainability journey. If we get enough response then I am very happy to convene a seminar at Asda House to share what we have learnt over the last 5 years.

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At Asda we have done more than any other UK retailer to reduce our packaging, educate consumers on how they can recycle it and work with government and the waste industry to enable better recycling of packaging. It’s close to our hearts. Whilst the rest of the retail sector recently went for a 10% reduction in food packaging weight, we smashed a 25% reduction.

Since then we have created an expert body comprising of government, lobby groups, academics, major brands and the packaging industry. We call this group a SVN – Sustainable Value Network – and they very kindly offered their time to help us configure a new system that will enable future further packaging optimisation.

Packaging gets knocked every day but we must remember that without it, enormous amounts of food would rot before reaching the mouths of our customers and their families – but we do agree that it must be optimised, ie reduced as much as possible whilst still carrying out its primary purpose – to protect the product.

Bob Gordon at the British Retail Consortium spoke to Jeremy Vine last week – see his comments here at 1:09 hrs (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sjqdn/Jeremy_Vine_27_05_2010/). Bob is in charge of all things environmental at the BRC and like myself is passionate about doing the right thing for the environment. He’s a great guy and I would urge you to listen to his thoughts.

When you’ve listened to Bob’s comments then please do let me have your thoughts on this blog. I will gather up all the comments and see if I can get our very busy Head of Packaging, Shane, to do a video blog for us to answer them.

What suggestions do you have for us to further optimise our packaging to ensure it best protects food whilst being as minimum as possible?

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Trolleys may be an unexpected hero in the fight to protect our planet but can make more of a difference than you might think.

The new trolley collection system we have just introduced to prevent them going on permanent ‘walkies’ has some surprising environmental benefits.

This new scheme will save us having to buy replacement trolleys, so we can use these financial savings to continue to lower our prices, but also by not buying the trolleys in the first place they won’t need to be manufactured. This will save over one and a half million kilos of carbon every year.

OK a small step but one definitely worth taking. Made me look at our humble trolley in a new light when I was doing my shopping today – though fitting them with a green cape may create some concern in our health & safety team!!

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My thanks to everyone who supported Earth Hour.

In WWF’s own words “The event was a huge success in fact, over a billion people switched off their lights. Over 4000 towns and cities in 126 countries were plunged into darkness, not to mention Big Ben, the Palace of Westminster, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Pyramids, the Coliseum and the Forbidden City. And if you ve got a minute, you can check out photos and videos from the night“

I must admit that it felt weird sitting in my front room in the dark but not as impressive as all the iconic buildings around the UK that were in the dark. You can see the images here

Our stores, customers and colleagues really rose to the challenge and we are already making plans to make next year the biggest yet for Asda and Walmart so watch this space!

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If you haven’t already been there then I really recommend you check out TreeHugger. OK, I know that the name makes it sound like a bunch of hippies standing in a field but it’s actually an internationally respected site (and the most read blog site in the world) and is packed with fascinating articles across a whole range of issues.

In fact I had the opportunity to meet one of their top bloggers, Bonne Alter, last week to chat about what we are doing at Asda – check out the resulting article here.

Before you click into the link, I would like to correct a couple of areas, namely we were actually the first supermarket to introduce local sourcing hubs over 10 years ago, something that our competitors have since copied, as it allows small suppliers to easily sell their products to our customers. Also, I would argue against the comment that George is a fast fashion brand in the true sense of the word – we have a 100 day guarantee and whilst our clothes are very reasonably priced they are made to last- after all what is low prices if the clothes wear out after a week! On the final paragraph, we are certainly closely aligned with the rest of Walmart on our sustainability strategy too.

Let me know what you think of the article and please do check out TreeHugger as I certainly find it a very interesting site – they even do a daily update email!

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Whilst I was over in the US I spent time with Rand Waddoups, Senior Director US Sustainability and Lea Jepson, Sustainability Director for US own brand products. Both have full time roles helping to embed sustainability into the Walmart US business.

I managed to grab them both for a quick vblog, though unfortunately we were cut short as we were making too much noise (!) and so I was only able to get Rand’s views.

Have a look as it’s a great example of how becoming more sustainable helps in all sorts of areas that you wouldn’t immediately expect. In the case that Rand discusses here, it helps to recruit talent into Walmart in the first place!

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We have been working on reducing our environmental impact since 2005 but in that time have mainly been focussing on our direct emissions, ie those produced by our operations like electricity, diesel usage etc. We have made great strides in reducing these but more on that in a later blog!

Walmart undertook a piece of analysis with Conservation International a few years ago that showed us that these operational activities account for only 8%, whereas our supply chain, ie products that we sell, account for 92% of our total carbon footprint. However, you need to understand your own carbon before you can tackle supply chain carbon. Today is the day that our focus shifts to partnering with our suppliers to reduce product emissions.

Walmart has just announced that we will eliminate 20 million metric tonnes of carbon (tonnes of CO2 equivalent) from our products between now and the end of 2015.

Paul Kelly, Asda’s External Affairs and Corporate Responsibility Director, took part in the webchat with Walmart – available here – that launched the announcement. Check out his vblog here!

More on this to come but please do send me your comments.

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This week marks a new milestone in our drive to make sustainable products both affordable and accessible. We have unveiled a new machine in Asda Barnsley that allows our customers to refill laundry conditioner pouches rather than having to take a brand new bottle. Why bother you might ask – well how about the fact that not only does it save 96% of packaging weight but also saves £3.70 over 10 refills – that makes it around half the price of an equivalent branded conditioner. It’s really easy to use – as ably demonstrated by Sarah in the video.

Last year we reduced the weight of the packaging across our fabric conditioners by 55% (a total of 596 tonnes) and this project takes this a massive step further.

The first machine is now live in our Barnsley store and there will also be machines at Swansea and Hartlepool from 31st Jan and Govan and Carlisle from 7th Feb. You can choose from Asda Baby Soft or Asda Soft Linen & Cotton Flower conditioners, both of which are big sellers for us. The machine automates the whole process and makes sure that it is simple and mess free.

The discount is applied as follows:

This project is the fruition of over a year’s work with WRAP , Eziserv and the manufacturers McBride’s and Unilever, not to mention a lot of sweat and tears from colleagues of mine at Asda.

Talk about feeling good about both saving the environment and the cash in your pocket! If the trial is successful then we would hope to roll it out across all our stores – and maybe other products. I’ll keep you updated on its success through this blog.

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Tell kids the story….that’s my challenge. You have lots and lots of parents who shop at your supermarkets and seeing as their children will be the future of tomorrow, it makes sense that you want to help teach kids and families about climate change.

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Because Walmart is such a big player in the supermarket industry, you can very much influence what’s happening.

So my challenge is: get other supermarkets to sign up to the Carbon Disclosure Project.

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We can forget that, while we in the UK are looking at the impact of the way we live our lives, there is a corresponding effect on those who depend on our custom. South Africa has huge challenges on the way they address social and environmental issues.

So over the next week or so I’ll be posting a series of articles and videos on what I found. This first video shows some of the landscape of Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain – look out for Robben island and the new football stadium on the coast.

Table Mountain was the first thing to strike me in Cape Town (other than the World Cup preparations). It frames the city. It’s part of a series of hills. These are pretty rugged and are a contrast to the valley sides and floors which are green with farming activity.

I was slightly confused by the combination of sunshine, warmth and driving on the right side of the road. The traffic was just like any other busy city, as were other details (skyscraper offices, buses, coffee shops etc). The city felt safe and I walked and used the bus system to get around.

Given I was visiting to talk about sustainability, perhaps it was no surprise that there was a lot going on around this. The produce sector (fruit and wine) has a strategy ‘Confronting Climate Change’ where producers have carbon calculators in operation.

One of the biggest carbon ‘hot spots’ on farm is water. This is due to the energy required to pump water for irrigation. Water is a scarce resource. I was shown narrow band irrigation to reduce the water requirement, soil management with compost and straw to reduce water loss and improve nutrient quality and water fertiliser combination to allow the trees to develop without water wastage and using lower power requirement pumps.

It would be remiss not to cover the social issues. You can’t avoid the townships on the edge of Cape Town. I saw the new social housing being built. I also saw the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) programmes which are helping to address some of the inequities. Already BEE enterprises are supplying into the South African fruit processors and at impactful levels.

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Here are the 3 top things that I feel need to happen by the end of the Copenhagen Climate Talks.

There are many more areas that need to be decided and many more points that need to be argued, but I’ve put it down to 3.

These 3 goals are very ambitious and the talks are currently waaaay far off achieving them, but if politicians pull their fingers out, stop bickering and arguing between themselves, then the world can start working towards making the changes that are needed.

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On Saturday, I joined thousands to march 7km from the centre of Copenhagen to the Bella Centre, which is on the outskirts of the capital.

It was cold, but the sun was shining, people were happy, singing and laughing and it was extremely inspiring.

I’m really proud that I went, I’m really proud that I marched, because I marched for me, I marched for you and I marched for the safety of our future.

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