Food Retailers Advised To Hang On To Sustainability During Hard Times

Despite the economic slowdown it is crucial that food retailers do not put on hold their strategies for sustainability and for building ethical businesses as there is a risk that they could be left behind.

By Glynn Davis

Speaking at the IGD Global Retailing conference in London Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive of IGD, suggested it would be tempting for companies to take a step back from sustainability until the economy improves but this would be a mistake because those companies that have started to tackle the problem are recouping the benefits.

“Sustainability is about making your business future-proof. There is a massive transformation taking place and we urgently need to use the world's scarce resources carefully,” she says.

Denney-Finch highlighted how large operators like Wal-Mart can make a major difference by focusing on the environment, especially when it involves its suppliers: “It wants its 65,000 suppliers to reduce carbon use and this will have a bigger impact than any governments.”

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