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.
Posted by Julian on 09 August 2010, 12:41Share - Comments (2) - Leave your own comment
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.







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.
Trolleys may be an unexpected hero in the fight to protect our planet but can make more of a difference than you might think.
My thanks to everyone who supported Earth Hour.
