Sustainability report

Waking up to waste

An intelligent approach to waste requires the ability to measure how much we generate and to see materials as resources whether in the “waste stream” or not. With an innovative approach, we can make products and services, rather than waste.

Our focus is to significantly reduce the waste we contribute to landfill. Building on the success of our KwaZulu-Natal stores' waste-management plan (which increased its recycling rate by 13% this year), we are implementing store waste-management across all our corporate stores. Our Gauteng and Western Cape distribution centres currently recycle 35% of total waste generated at each site, and we aim to increase this to 50% in the coming year.

There is clearly more to be done. Our focus will increasingly move to the broader system level, fostering dialogue between waste-management and product and packaging innovation to close the loop on waste generation. A promising example of this approach is our biodiesel initiative. Waste oil currently collected from all our Western Cape corporate stores is converted to biodiesel for use in our commercial fleet. The rollout to all other regions will be completed by the end of 2010. We have also introduced a new in-store recycling unit for customers which allows for the recycling of ink-cartridges, CFLs, batteries and plastic bags.

Above: New in-store recycling units

Sustainable packaging: Packaging presents an ongoing challenge and opportunity. While packaging reduction is clearly desirable from a cost and environmental point of view, damaged goods resulting from inadequate packaging generates an additional waste stream and must be avoided. Addressing this challenge within our house-brand division has led to some early wins and will provide for ongoing learning as we seek to apply packaging-reduction principles to all departments.

The approach was pioneered by our Fresh Produce division, which will introduce a range of new packaging materials shortly. Their initial explorations achieved a 2% reduction in packaging usage this year, amounting to an estimated annual reduction of 1 000 kg of waste. A packaging database for our Fresh Produce division will be completed by the end of 2010, and for our Corporate Brands by the end of 2011.

Innovative products

The ability to offer products and services that meet sustainability and ethical criteria is becoming a differentiator in the mass retail market. We pioneered “green products” in the early 90s ,and using the experience gained from this, we are creating an enhanced portfolio of green and ethical products for our customers. Price remains a critical factor influencing customer decisions to purchase in accordance with sustainability criteria and we are striving to achieve price parity on sustainable and ethical lines. Our customers have also responded positively to the Green Label household cleaners launched in June 2009 – and we are currently extending our range of products.

The ability to offer products and services that meet sustainability and ethical criteria is becoming a differentiator in the mass retail market. In the early ’90s Pick n Pay we continue to raise the bar with an expanded, enhanced portfolio of green and ethical products.		We are extending our Pick n Pay Green Cleaning Range
The Flowervalley project now supplies flowers to our stores		Leveraging enterprise development There is a strong drive within the organisation to establish a more strategic enterprise development initiative. We believe enterprise development must seek to quantify social and environmental value created across the supply chain, and that this approach should ultimately inform the broader business model for Pick n Pay. Our efforts in recent years have focused on assisting small-scale entrepreneurs to become sustainable suppliers to the retail industry; and have sought primarily to address the inequalities of the past by focusing on Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment. This hub of entrepreneurship is now increasingly becoming a pipeline of new and enterprising products reaching our shelves, and a lever to drive our product innovation.