BUYING SMART
ROBERT PAETZ / PEACETREESVIETNAM. ORG
Life-changing products
As most members will know, Costco’ s competitive advantage comes from offering top-quality items at the lowest possible prices. Costco’ s private label, Kirkland Signature, gives ample opportunity to improve quality and value through ongoing supply chain refinements. All Kirkland Signature items aim to be respectful of the individuals, communities and environments involved in production. The mission is to improve lives and outcomes, one item at a time.
One example is Kirkland Signature pepper, which is partly sourced from a growing community of Vietnamese farmers. With the help of a non-profit organisation, they are in the process of reclaiming waraffected land for farming. Costco’ s support helps the community build a successful income stream and in turn, provides the business with a stable source of product to meet rising demand. It also gives members a product they can feel good about buying.
Smart packaging
“ Globally, Costco has committed to a number of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that allow us to make tangible change in our business. One of these is responsible consumption and production, which underpins our waste minimisation efforts,” Tang says.
So one of Costco’ s goals is to reduce the amount of packaging and plastic used while protecting the product inside. Costco’ s Australian produce department recently changed the Fruitico AUTUMNCRISP ® grape packaging from a plastic punnet to a top-seal punnet with a film lid.“ This not only reduced the plastic packaging use by 50 percent but also extended the grapes’ shelf life, which really exemplifies that we can make sustainable choices that actually improve our product quality,” says Jatin Naran, Costco Australia Produce Buyer.
Costco Australia is also using more sustainable packaging in other areas of the warehouse, such as recyclable plastic packaging for onsite prepared meals, salads and party platters.
Fighting the war on waste
Sustainable packaging isn’ t the only way Costco is tackling waste minimisation.“ Reducing landfill is really the main objective of our waste minimisation efforts,” says Tang.“ One of the ways we can do this is through standard operating procedures that include donations and recycling.” To combat food waste, Costco partners with various non-profit and charitable organisations to donate unsold fresh food like produce, bakery items, dairy and proteins. This helps to lessen Costco’ s contribution to landfill and supports local food-insecure communities.
Another example is rendered meat recycling – unused raw meat, fat and bones can be recycled into animal feed, fertilisers, biodiesel and more. Any offcuts in Costco’ s meat departments are disposed of in specific meat bins, which are then collected and processed as recycling. Saving this waste for alternative uses reduces the demand for the production of new resources, further reducing Costco’ s contribution to landfill.
COSTCO CONNECTION
Shop sustainably across the Costco range – from Kirkland Signature items to fresh items that produce less waste.
12 | JAN / FEB 2024 COSTCO CONNECTION