Responsible retailing: graduate careers in corporate social responsibility (CSR)

We asked these two retail CSR experts for their thoughts on what environmental issues are most important, how retailers are 'greening' their businesses, what the future holds - and what this means for graduates entering retail.

Caroline Miller is corporate responsibility governance manager for Sainsbury's.
Mike Barry is head of corporate and social responsibility at Marks & Spencer.

What are the main environmental and ethical issues that retailers need to address?

Caroline: There are so many issues involved in retail and if you choose a career in corporate responsibility (CR), you’ll be dealing with a diverse range of issues on a daily basis. Ethical and environmental concerns are pertinent to every stage of a retail operation – from sourcing products to the way employees are treated.

Mike: The retail sector has a particularly important role in addressing the sustainability challenge. The diversity of products that it sells means that it touches virtually every sustainability issue at some stage in its supply chains.

From wood sourcing to labour standards, cotton sourcing to Fairtrade, animal welfare to air freight, the retail sector has the power to drive much more sustainable approaches to production across the globe. Its influence doesn’t stop there. Each retailer has thousands of stores, warehouses and lorries to ‘green’.

'Consumers are demanding ever-higher levels of integrity from supermarkets.'

Caroline: For our customers, packaging is one of the main environmental issues they tell us is important to them, so we are working to reduce the amount of packaging we use and making this recyclable, reusable or compostable wherever possible.

Energy is another big issue for us and we aim to reduce our CO2 emissions by 25 % by 2012, ahead of government targets. These are just a couple of the environmental challenges we face but there are a whole host of other CR issues involved in the retail sector.

When did ethical and environmental issues begin to make an impact on retailers’ policies?

Mike: The British consumer of 20 years ago was very trusting of what they were buying. However, food scandals such as mad cow disease in the 1990s began to raise questions about where our food was coming from. This concern about food safety has now spread to a wider range of social and environmental issues.

Approximately 80 % of the population are concerned about ethical and environmental issues. The current rise in awareness in the retail sector is a reaction to the growing customer demand for a greener society.

How are retailers dealing with these issues?

Caroline: There are no easy, black and white answers to many of the CR questions posed by retailing and as a result, everyone is taking a slightly different approach to tackling them. At Sainsbury’s, our approach to CR falls under five principles: best for food and health; sourcing with integrity; respect for our environment; making a positive difference to our community; a great place to work.

With regards to sourcing with integrity, 100 % of our bananas are now Fairtrade and all of our own-brand tissues, kitchen towels and toilet rolls are made from sustainably sourced wood fibre (certified by the Forest Stewardship Council). It’s also about changing the behaviour of consumers, through initiatives such as encouraging customers to reuse their carrier bags each time they shop.

Is anything being done collaboratively between retailers?

Caroline: There is both competition and collaboration within the retail sector. Organisations such as Business in the Community (BITC) and many other specialist trade bodies and associations are bringing retailers together to share best practice in dealing with common issues. At the same time, competition can be a great incentive to drive forward the CR agenda in retailers’ policies.

Are retailers just paying lip service to customer demands?

Caroline: It’s essential that retailers respond to what customers want in order to stay competitive. However, it’s not just about profitability – environmental and ethical issues are a huge concern and it would be foolish to ignore them, especially when we have the potential to make such a big difference.

Consumers are demanding ever-higher levels of integrity from supermarkets and all the signs show that this is only set to increase in the future. A lot of changes that retailers are making, such as reducing energy consumption, will also be financially beneficial to them.

Mike: These issues are only ever going to get more important and we need people who are going to take these issues seriously. Creating sustainable practices can only be beneficial for both our environment and our businesses in the long run.

The next generation of graduate recruits will be much more environmentally aware and as new procedures filter down to all departments, wherever you end up working you will be affected by environmental and ethical policies. However, the sheer amount of work that still needs to be done means that changes won’t happen overnight.

What opportunities are there for graduates in this area?

Mike: Most CSR teams are quite small and recruit candidates with relevant experience, so it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to get a job in this area straight out of university. Work in retail through a graduate scheme and then specialise later on in your career. A relevant degree might be useful but you need to have the business knowledge to back it up and allow you to see the whole picture.

You can find out about potential employers’ green credentials by looking at CSR reports on their websites. For a more objective view, check out the Dow Jones sustainability index or BITC’s CR index.