The Co-operative Group set a new benchmark for ethical trading last week when it unveiled a ground-breaking strategy to overhaul radically operations at one of the UK’s major retailers.
The three-year Ethical Operating Plan will feature one of the most far-reaching conversion programmes to Fairtrade ever undertaken in the UK, a push to reduce carbon emissions below any other major UK business and a multi-million pound investment in training and development, amid a raft of 47 targets.
The move is widely thought to set a new standard for corporate responsibility and is expected to see rival retailers follow suit.
A highlight is the motto “if it can be Fairtrade, it will be Fairtrade” as the retailer aims to make 90 per cent of the primary commodities sourced from the developing world certified to the standard.
Alongside this, the chain will extend The Co-operative Farms’ Grown By Us range and aim to supply a quarter of all fresh produce sold in stores by 2015. A minimum of 30 per cent of food promotions will be on healthy options including fresh produce.
A national apprenticeship scheme to train new farmers and growers is to launch in April across six farms in England and Scotland, aimed at 17-19 year olds as part of a £30 million Inspiring Young People programme.
The plan’s progress will be reported on each year in The Co-operative’s sustainability report, in parallel to the group’s standard business plan.
The strategy will build on that of the last three years, which has seen the group double its revenues, profits and membership.
This initiative will be backed by a new advertising campaign set to kick off next month.
Group chief executive Peter Marks said: “Our ambition is to build a better society and this plan will stimulate and reinforce the unique benefit of the consumer co-operative model.
“At a time when UK society is picking up the pieces from a recession exacerbated by corporate greed and speculation, we are seeking to show that there is another way. The plc model is not the only game in town. It is possible for business to embrace the efficiencies of the market economy and also the need for robust legislation to ensure that progress is sustainable and just.
“Taken together, we believe the measures and pledges set out in our ethical plan raise the bar on corporate sustainability.”
Environmentalist Jonathon Porritt said the plan will “take corporate sustainability into a new era” and that “other businesses will be looking to benchmark themselves against this plan”.
The move comes ahead of Fairtrade Fortnight and as Fairtrade Foundation executive director Harriet Lamb admitted that this year has been a “disappointment” for producers supplying Fairtrade fruit outside bananas and that “we didn’t do enough - us, the brands, the retailers - to tell that story to the public”.
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