Supermarkets in the dock for CSR strategies

Supermarkets always seem to be under fire for reneging on their corporate social responsibilities - but Verity Gough looks at how they are working to give themselves a little more green peace.

By Verity Gough, staff writer

In the current climate of social and environmental awareness, a tough policy for corporate social responsibility (CSR) is worth its weight in gold. This appears to be particularly the case for supermarkets, as consumers, staff, policy makers and the media pressure them into addressing their impact on the local community and the wider environment. But are they simply paying lip service to the issues du jour?

It all looks good on paper and, for some firms, CSR has also proved popular with consumers in practice. Marks and Spencers' Plan A, for instance, is a five-year, 100-point 'eco' strategy that aims to tackle a range of issues such as climate change, waste reduction and ethical trading. Sainsbury's Active Kids is another prime example of an effective CSR approach. Likewise, Waitrose - whose middle name is 'sustainability' - has proven that being responsible does not mean losing your edge.

However, there is still a propensity for most big corporations to 'greenwash' their CSR policies. So what are the crimes that are allegedly being committed - and do the supermarkets hold up to scrutiny?

The crime: Cheap alcohol encourages binge-drinking

With images of drunken teens and stories of alcohol-induced street violence appearing in the papers on a daily basis, the media has been quick to demonise supermarkets as the root cause, thanks to the availability of cut-price alcohol.

"Supermarkets have a responsibility to price alcohol realistically," says Frank Soodeen, communications director for Alcohol Concern. "This is not an ordinary product and continuing to cynically market it below cost in order to increase footfall increases the risk to the public health."

He believes supermarkets need to raise their game when it comes to helping tackle high-risk drinking among the public. "Responsible pricing strategies, better point of sale information outlining the risks of drinking above the recommended limits and a greater choice of low alcohol products would all help," he says. "Restricting alcohol to specific aisles and making sure staff are properly trained to identify under-age buyers would also send a very strong signal."

One supermarket that appears to be ticking these boxes is Asda. Earlier this year, it became the first supermarket to remove all 50cl super strength canned beers and lagers from its shelves and has stepped up its consumer information strategy through more effective labelling. It has also rolled out its own proof of age scheme, 'Challenge 25', whereby customers buying alcohol must produce photo ID (photo card, driving license, passport or PASS accredited proof of age card) if they look under 25-years-old.

The crime: Driving smaller retailers out of business

In 2006, Tesco was accused of by-passing planning laws and 'land-banking' for future stores during an inquiry by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) into concerns over the monopolisation of the retail sector by supermarkets.

The Competition Commission found no actual basis for the accusations and stated that suppliers' profits were not being squeezed. However, despite the results, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) claims around 2,000 independent retailers go out of business each year. "It is not a level playing field," says FSB deputy head of public affairs Simon Briault. "Supermarkets are selling things at no mark-up at all in order to stamp out the independent competition and this is what we object to."

Briault believes Britain could follow the example of countries such as France where loss leaders (selling products at a loss) are banned and a thriving independent sector operates side by side with the large supermarkets. "The independent sector in the UK is being stamped out," he adds. "Supermarkets ought to play by the rules and conduct business in a way that is competitive but not unfair on smaller independent retailers and suppliers."

The crime: Suppliers are treated unfairly

One of the most contentious of all CSR issues is the unfair treatment of workers in the garment industry. Martin Hearson, from campaigners Labour Behind The Label, wants to see less jumping on the bandwagon and more commitment from supermarkets on this issue. "In theory, all the main supermarkets are committed to this but in practice, we have seen very little ethics to live up to the promise to pay workers a living wage," he explains.

"The cost of the labour in a garment is from somewhere between 1-4%. Supermarkets could quite easily double that, which is what is needed without necessarily adding anything to the retail price at all. They could take that kind of hit to their margins or, alternatively, they could put a small price increase onto consumers."

He adds that supermarkets in particular are well placed to influence consumers' choices and should use that power to make a difference. One way is through the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), which sets out guidelines and standards for signatories to adhere to. However, with all the major supermarkets already being members, in theory, shouldn't consumers be safe in the knowledge they are not funding an unethical supply chain?

"While being a member of the ETI is a prerequisite to do things effectively, in itself, it's not enough just to join," says Hearson. "The question is how do supermarkets take advantage of being members? The fact is, they don't do nearly enough. I'd like to see them doing way more to take advantage of what the ETI offers."

The crime: Practices that are damaging the environment

Environmental awareness is perhaps the one area where supermarkets have been making strides in recent years, in particular with regards to transparency.

Ben Stewart, communications director at Greenpeace, believes supermarkets can follow the lead of other corporations who have turned around their unethical practices. He uses McDonald's as an example. "When we pointed out their supply chain was leading to deforestation in the Amazon, they worked very hard to do something about it," he says.

Unilever, which manufacturers a raft of big-name supermarket products, is set to follow suit on its Indonesian deforestation policies.

Among the supermarkets, Waitrose ranks highly on the Greenpeace league table as a keen advocate of sustainable practices and an active supporter of anti-packaging organisation WRAP's 'Love Food, Hate Waste' campaign. On a lesser scale, Netto, Lidl and Aldi ask customers to pay for their 100% recyclable plastic carrier bags to encourage re-use.

However, a recent report from the National Consumer Council (NCC) found that while most supermarkets had taken steps to be more environmentally-friendly on certain issues such as sustainable fishing and reducing their CO² footprint, not one supermarket had improved in all areas. Even top performers like Waitrose and Co-Op failed to implement basic measures in-store in every store.

"Supermarkets have a huge role to play in helping consumers make the right choices in this day and age and they are every bit as powerful as politicians," says Stewart. "We would urge them to get ahead of the game, look at their practices and act in a more sustainable manner."

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