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Tuesday March 4th 2008

Ethical Trading Top, Climate Change Bottom in Consumers' Priorities

Archived article dated Tuesday March 4th 2008

Ethical trading is consumers' number one issue, while climate change only interests a tiny fraction of shoppers, according to a new poll looking at the ethics of food shopping conducted by The Co-Operative Group.

The poll, born out of a six-month consultation period in which 100,000 of the Co-op's members participated, asked shoppers to name their ethical food priorities. The three leading answers were ethical trading (27%), animal welfare (25%) and the environment (22%). Surprisingly, given the publicity they've received, packaging (8%) and climate change (4%) were towards the bottom of the list.

The consultation was designed to inform the Co-op's food policy and as a result of ethical trading finishing top, it has announced it will become the first UK retailer to convert its entire own-brand hot beverage range - worth over £16 million annually - to Fairtrade. Plus, tipping its cap to the animal welfare concerns, the Co-op is also banning the sale of eggs from caged hens.

"Our members have endorsed our ethical approach to business and provided us with some real challenges going forward,” said Peter Marks, Chief Executive of The Co-operative Group. “We have listened to what they have had to say and are taking action in key priority areas now and not at some far off or unspecified point in the future.”

The move on hot drinks means that the Co-op, which is a consumer-owned organisation, will switch its tea and hot chocolate ranges to Fairtrade, having already become the first retailer to do so with coffee. Fairtrade means third-world suppliers get a guaranteed price for their crop as well as a fair-trade premium to invest in projects of their choice, such as water supplies, educational equipment and medical facilities.

“By the middle of this month all tea produced under The Co-operative label will be Fairtrade,” said Marks. “Alongside our Fairtrade coffee and hot chocolate, this means that all our own-brand hot beverages benefit producers in developing countries.”

The ban on the sale of eggs from caged hens means that all eggs on sale will be either free range or organic. Other initiatives to come out of the poll include a promise to radically reduce the weight of wine packaging and to add a further 66 pesticides to its prohibited list.

The retailer is reducing the glass content used for 26 different wines, which will save 450 tonnes of glass per annum. Its move on pesticides means there are now 98 chemicals on The Co-operative's prohibited list compared to the 32 that were previously listed.

"On the environment, members have said that they want to see action on packaging and waste, so we're announcing a major reduction in the weight of our wine packaging, as glass accounts for half of all of our packaging by weight,” said Marks. “And, given that members were so supportive of our commitment to remove substances of concern, we are also announcing that our prohibited list of pesticides for own-brand products has tripled to almost 100."

However, the Co-Op has also admitted that it was shocked by the low score for climate change, though it isn't changing its policy.

"One surprising finding of the poll was that only four per cent of members cited climate change as their ethical priority,” said Marks. “Despite this, The Co-operative remains fully committed to supporting the global drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Tagged as: ethical | climate | co-op

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