Panel discussion on Sustainability in Retail
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From L to R<\/strong>: Surender Gnanaolivu<\/strong>, Executive Vice President and Head – Marketing,
\nBrand Experience and Store Development, Mahindra Retail Pvt Ltd; Siddharth Bindra<\/strong>, MD, BiBa; Sudhir Soundalgekar<\/strong>, CCA & Head Lifestyle & Specialty Projects, Shoppers Stop Ltd<\/p>\n

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Opening Remarks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moderator: Ravi Singh<\/strong>, CEO & Secretary General WWF<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u2022 The world is today consuming 1.5 planets worth of resources annually.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Demand for certain commodities such as palm oil, milk and beef (buffalo meat) is threatening India\u2019s biodiversity.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Owing to its direct contact with consumers, the retail industry is in a position to drive change towards sustainability.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Experience with mature markets shows that the \u2018tipping point\u2019 towards structural sustainability is when consumers adopt and are willing to pay for sustainable products.<\/p>\n

What are your initiatives towards sustainability?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Our sustainability initiatives are driven by decisions that make business sense.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Three objectives for sustainability initiatives:<\/p>\n

1. Reduce Energy: overall energy spends down by 15% by using LEDs lights<\/p>\n

2. Reduce Emissions: changing air conditioning filters regularly; reducing carry bag usage; reduce travel by using video conferencing.<\/p>\n

3. Reduce Resources: reusing and resizing building fixtures, saved 18% maintenance costs.<\/p>\n

\u2022 This disciplined approach to sustainability has ensured cost savings\u00a0 every 11th store free.<\/p>\n

Surender Gnanaolivu<\/strong>, EVP, Mahindra Retail<\/p>\n

M&M sustainability ethos at a group level runs deep. The challenge was to adapt to Retail.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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What are your initiatives towards sustainability?
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\u2022 Typically manufacturing processes such as printing release a lot of effluents. So we try to maintain a control on that.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Textile plant use chemicals which are environmentally friendly because they also cater to the European market.\u00a0 Have had these extended to India.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Progressive standards in manufacturing, are being applied by default, to the Indian market.
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Siddharth Bindra, <\/strong>Owner, BIBA<\/p>\n

\nWe are launching a range of organic cotton to gauge customer willingness to adopt and pay a premium<\/span><\/strong><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are your initiatives towards sustainability?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Sustainability was driven top-down, by business requirements.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Reduce: Lighting \/ Air conditioning. As power tariffs increased, there was pressure to reduce usage.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Reuse: Rainwater harvesting \/ Storm water drainage based reuse of water resources for air conditioners.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Recycle: Focus on recycling paper<\/p>\n

\u2022 Results:\u00a0 60 lakhs units of power saved by Shoppers Stop Ltd. = to Rs 6.8 crores per annum. Equal to one store \u201cfree\u201d given to management per annum.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Saved 84 mio pages to date through initiatives to recycle paper.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Carbon footprint \u2013 saved 10 metric tons of carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Carbon footprint benchmarks:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Comparable with international retailers such as M&S and Walmart.<\/p>\n

Sudhir Soundalgekar, <\/strong>Projects Head, Shoppers Stop<\/p>\n

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If there is a policy \u2013 driven top down \u2013 then sustainability is easy to implement within a company<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\nHow can the entire retail supply chain be made sustainable?
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\u201cThere are no government<\/p>\n

regulations in this regard as yet.<\/p>\n

So the industry must take the lead in educating customers to make environment-friendly choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Surender Gnanaolivu<\/strong>, Executive Vice President and Head Marketing, Brand Experience and Store Development, Mahindra Retail Pvt Ltd<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to partners with vendors. The industry needs to explain the cause of sustainability to the people we source from and encourage them to observe our policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Siddharth Bindra<\/strong>, MD, BiBa<\/p>\n

\u201cFirstly, consumers need to be motivated to believe in the cause of sustainability. Secondly, the retail industry needs to incentivise and evangelise intelligent methods of resource consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Sudhir Soundalgekar<\/strong>, CCA & Head Lifestyle & Specialty Projects,
\nShoppers Stop Ltd<\/p>\n

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