What Going Green Means
By Peter Berlinski

“Retailing 2015: New Frontiers,” provides an insightful glimpse into the retail environment in 2015 and forecasts how retailers will tailor their products and services to the shifting consumer demographics of the future. The report issued this October by PricewaterhouseCoopers and TNS Retail Forward analyzes the anticipated economic drivers and key trends that will redefine the business environment in 2015.

For example, the report notes: “In 2015, retailers and suppliers will be held to higher standards around the world. Concern about the planet and its people will be an integral part of mainstream consumer demand.”

Among the trends that the report predicts will redefine the business environment in 2015 are these three key developments:

1. Downsizing: The current trend of sustainability will drive the downsizing of products, packaging, resource consumption and waste as more people look to smaller, more personalized products.
2. Share of Life Retailing: Retailers will no longer define themselves by the products they sell, but by the consumers they serve. Retailers will position themselves as one-stop purveyors of lifestyles.
3. Triple Bottom Line Scorecard: Definitions of corporate success will change by 2015, with increased focus on the environmental and social performance of a company.
   Store Brand Examples
   Indeed, we believe store brand retailers are on the leading edge of these market changes. Consider these examples.

In 2005, Safeway launched its $100 million marketing campaign, called Ingredients for Life, in support of its major new store brand positioning program. Key elements of the program include a new Lifestyle store format that emphasizes a more inviting décor with warm ambiance and subdued lighting, and a greater selection of high-quality fresh products as well as the introduction of its O Organics grocery line that has grown to include O Organics for Baby and for Toddler. There are now more than 200 items in the organic line. And this year, Safeway announced the opening of the first of 23 planned Solar Stores in California. The solar panels installed atop newly renovated Safeway Lifestyle stores will provide 20 percent of the stores’ average power usage.

This September to much fanfare, Publix opened the doors to its first Publix GreenWise Market, located in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.

The 39,000 sq. ft. store offers customers an extensive selection of health, earth-friendly all-natural and organic products combined with top-selling conventional items. A dedicated body care section takes center stage in the grocery department offering customers a wide selection of natural and conventional lines of homeopathy, herbals, aromatherapy, shampoo, cosmetics, body care vitamins, mineral, and supplements.

The store itself has been engineered to be environmental friendly. LEED certification–Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design–is pending from the U.S. Green Building Council. The store has taken steps to reduce energy consumption by utilizing skylights throughout the store and a light sensoring system that monitors daylight entering into the store and adjusts fluorescent lighting accordingly. To reduce the store’s ozone depleting substances, the store uses environmentally friendly secondary coolant systems and refrigerants throughout the store.

Now, Safeway and Publix are not alone in their green initiatives. See this issue’s cover story for more ways on how: “Store Brands Go Green.”