Canadian Music Trade - February / March 2020 | Page 28

Business Matters
By Michael Raine
CAN
MI Retail
GO GREEN?
As
climate scientists’
dire warnings
about global
warming grow
more urgent
and the timeline
for needed action shrinks, every company’s
environmental impact is under scrutiny.
Whether motivated by prospects of good
or bad press or an earnest concern for the
world’s survival, there has been a noticeable
and accelerating shift in retail over the last
decade towards environmental conscious-
ness. From Walmart and Ikea to Canadian
fashion outlet Simons, major retailers are
installing solar panels, reducing waste, and
pressuring suppliers to reduce their carbon
footprints.
But at Canadian Music Trade, we started
wondering if there is much MI retailers can
do to reduce their environmental impact.
The answer, it appears, is yes – but how
28 CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE
much of an impact (or reduced impact) an
MI retailer can have depends on the size and
nature of their store.
“We have seen that retailers are obvious-
ly very concerned, not only from a cost
perspective but also from a world threat that
we all face. Most have gone through the top-
line energy efficiencies, like going to LED
lights, and then you’re looking at savings
in terms of heat and HVAC, etc. But many
cannot really control these depending on
whether they’re in a shopping centre or not,”
states Wendy Evans of Toronto-based retail
specialists Evans & Company Consultants,
which, among other things, specializes in
greening retail.
“The more forward retailers have been
looking at supply chains and seeing how
they can reduce packaging and reduce the
carbon footprint of their suppliers. The
supply chain is over 90 per cent of a retailer’s
carbon footprint; I think most retailers don’t
realize that,” Evans reveals.
For any MI retailer concerned with their
environmental impact, that is the tough
reality we learned because, of course, one
store is unlikely to have the purchasing
power to influence its suppliers’ sustainabil-
ity practices. And while more generalized
retailers can choose different suppliers based
on their environmental practices, MI retailers
typically don’t have that luxury, depending on
the brands and types of products they carry.