FEATURE
ES MOST RADICAL AND ENCOURAGES VOLUTION
Leading environmentalist Jonathon
Porritt said: “By launching this Ethical Plan, the Co-operative is taking corporate sustainability into a new era. Other businesses will now be seeking to benchmark themselves against this Plan”. Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the
Fairtrade Foundation said: “Always a pioneer of Fairtrade, The Co-operative’s commitment to ensuring that virtually all primary commodities that can be Fairtrade will be Fairtrade sets the bar anew for the corporate world.
”This commitment will be greeted by producers as a real lifeline in these tough economic times. This could herald a gear change for Fairtrade which chimes with the public mood and predictions that the public want to buy more Fairtrade in the future.”
In total there are 47 distinct targets within The Co-operative’s Ethical Plan, which will be reported on each year within The Group’s sustainability report, a globally recognised leader in terms of transparency, materiality and independent audit.
Every year, the Plan will be considered within the Group’s democratic structures and renewed in parallel to the standard three year rolling business plan.
Key targets set out in the Plan include:
Democratic control and reward • Co-operative Group membership to grow to 20 million by 2020 and to be opened up to the under 16s as soon as legally possible
• Dividend scheme to be amended to reward ethical consumerism
Ethical Finance • The Introduction of the world’s first ethically screened general insurance products, which will support over two million policies
• Double financial support for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects from £400 million to £1 billion by 2013
Protecting the environment • Having reduced its own
Peter Marks, Group Chief Executive, The Co-operative Group, in a Fairtrade tea field in Kericho, Kenya
operational carbon emissions by 20% since 2006, the target will now increase to 35% by 2017 – the most progressive of any major UK business
• We will enhance our market leading pesticides policy further, and seek to ban chemicals such as endosulfan and paraquat
• Leading biodiversity work in areas such as wood and fish to be matched with new targets on palm oil and soya
• On top of the 15% weight reductions achieved in packaging, we will reduce the environmental impact by a further 10% by 2012 and increase carrier bag reduction target to 75% by 2013
• The construction by 2012 of a head office that will set new standards in sustainable design, construction and operation in the UK
Building a fairer and better society • Co-operative enterprise will be more heavily supported through the investment of £11m by 2013 and the launch a new £20m international Co-operative Development Loan Fund
• The Co-operative’s community investment, already amongst the most generous in the UK, will be
expanded to include £5m a year to help tackle poverty around our stores and branches
• The Co-operative will spearhead a cultural shift in youth perception and opportunity through a £30m programme that will support an Apprenticeship Academy, a Green Schools programme and the creation of 200 Co-operative Schools by 2013
Tackling Global Poverty • Going forward, if it can be Fairtrade, it will be Fairtrade. By 2013, some 90% of the primary commodities sourced from the developing world will be certified to Fairtrade standards
• Furthermore, the Co-operative will develop a unique range of projects and initiatives that benefit producers and take us Beyond Fairtrade
Responsible retailing • Healthier Choice products will be no more expensive than standard equivalent lines and the nutritional content of Simply Value products will be at least as good as standard equivalent lines
www.co-operative.coop
SUSTAINABLE FM | FEBRUARY 2011
|11
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64