These days, high street retailers are being held to a higher standard when it comes to their environmental impact. Shoppers are not only looking to support brands that echo their own style and quality but also their ecological ethics too. As such, it is important that retailers make due effort to not only reduce their carbon footprint but also cultivate a shop space that indicates such environmentally-friendly pursuits.
Reduce Single-Use
There are a number of items traditionally associated with the shopping experience that can be defined as single-use. This could be a number of items, such as item tags, carrier bags, or receipts, each of which ultimately adds to waste. It is important to note that customers are often the ones who must dispose of these items, leaving them with a sense of guilt.
Retailers, as such, can make a significant impact by reducing or entirely eliminating the presence of such single-use items, or by seeking eco-friendly alternatives.
Sustainable Energy
The utilities of a retail space can have a significant environmental impact, especially in shops that make use of substantial lighting. Energy consumption can be managed well by either reducing the number of assets that use power or by switching to a sustainable source of energy. Any stride that is made to improve a retail’s energy efficiency should be advertised and many stores will already showcase their minimal carbon impact as part of their advertising, so as to encourage consumers to support their efforts.
Ethical Manufacturing
Retail design can be both performed sustainably and serve to advertise a store’s environmental efforts. Upcycled or sustainably manufactured shop furniture and shelving, such as slatwall, can have a practical presence while simultaneously contributing to a shop space that represents a small carbon footprint.
Organic designs, such as those created with wood and natural light, generally have a more positive impact on a shopper’s perception of environmental impact too.
Improved Products
Products stacked upon the shelves of a retail store are an important indicator of a shop’s environmental efforts. All other progress, such as in design and waste, is undermined if the products themselves are not emblematic of sustainability. The items are also the advertisements that customers will take from a store and display to others, which is why they should be given the utmost consideration when considering environmental sustainability.
Go Digital
Digital operations have an overall more positive impact on the environment than alternatives. This means that all modes of paper and print within a retail store should ideally be replaced with digital alternatives. Displays, for example, will perform more efficiently with digital images over posters that must be printed and replaced regularly.
Support An Environmental Cause
Some retailers will donate a portion of a purchase to a charitable cause. In such a situation, choosing to donate proceeds to an environmental charity will benefit both the planet and the reputation of the high street business, as customers gradually come to associate the retailer with a positive environmental impact.
Not only can you change your lighting to be more sustainable, the choice can have a positive impact on your customers as well. Please see the resource below for more information.
Provided by Dubak Electrical Group – expert industrial electrical contractors
