Hello and welcome to E-commerce World Review. This is the latest webinar on sustainability. Today we'll be discussing how the retail industry is changing to meet the pressures of climate legislation and changing consumer behavior in a bid to reduce the impact of the industry on the environment. I'm Emma Herrod, Executive Editor of Internet Retailing and Sustainability Lead at Retail X. Joining me today are two industry experts from Priory Direct and Pi Data Metrics, Josh and Sophie. Can I ask you to introduce yourselves and give a bit of background on your companies, please? Off to you, Sophie.
Thanks. So, Pi Data Metrics is a search intelligence platform. I work for them as the Head of Marketing there. What search intelligence means is we look at a macro level at what people are searching for in Google across all different types of topics, sustainability and the environment being one of them. Then we look at who's performing for those searches, so where are those searches ending up and what type of content are they landing on. And then we help our customers try and recreate those journeys to make sure that they're making the most of the online opportunity. And definitely not as much of an expert in this space as I'm sure Josh is, but I've got lots of interesting data on it. Thanks for the pressure, that's wonderful.
I'm Josh, Director of Priory Direct. We're a sustainable packaging retailer, and our mission is to make e-commerce a sustainable industry through supply chain innovation and providing access to sustainable packaging choices. We supply around 21,000 retailers in the UK currently, ranging from small sole traders through to the likes of H&M, Vivo Barefoot, and larger tier one and tier two high street brands.
Like so, we'll hear more about the work both you've been doing in a moment. Just, we're going to be going over last year; we produced a sustainability report. We set out to analyze how retailers, their growing drive to create sustainable businesses, and how this is encompassing sustainable product, sustainable business practices, operations, and of course, becoming sustainably profitable enterprises as well.
And of course, by sustainable, we mean more than green eco-recycling initiatives, but we're looking at sustainability across the whole of the retail cycle from product development, sourcing, inbound logistics, supply chain operations, selling, delivery, returns, second life from the point of view of the customer, the product operations, and the shareholder - all the different stakeholders. And of course, that's making everything complex for retailers who have already had to reorganize organizations around omnichannel retailing and e-commerce and connecting it in different ways. So, as part of that moving on, we've then looked at new business models, circular economy, and B Corporations, which are putting people and the planet on a path profit. And then, of course, as mentioned, how retailers are financing all of these changes.
It was interesting to discover in the last report that the adoption of the circular economy could result in European GDP increasing by as much as 27 percent by 2050. This year, we'll be looking at development, especially as we head towards COP26 in October. Come October, they're aiming to finalize the Paris rulebook, which will put into operation things that were agreed upon at the last COP meeting, as well as looking forward to how climate activity can be increased and accelerated, mainly through collaborative working with governments, businesses, and consumers alike.
The cool thing though is that global emissions have to halve between 2020 and 2030 if the rise in global temperature is to be kept at a safe level. Everyone is going to have to work to play their part in that. And then if we look at consumers, they are putting pressure on retailers to change as well. As one study has said, more than four in ten shoppers say they would pay more for sustainably or ethically sourced products or services, and a third already have done so. But if we look across Europe, that's not actually the same behavior. Western Europe more so, but in Poland and Serbia, for instance, and we talked to the e-commerce associations there, they're saying that there is legislation in place, but a lot of consumers aren't worried about sustainability. They'd rather have products that are cheap, reliable, and can be delivered quickly or when they need it.
Sophie, I know you've been doing a lot of research looking at UK consumers and their behavior, not just from surveys of what they say they're doing, but actually looking at their search behavior and how that then interacts. Do you want to talk us through some of those findings?
Yes, definitely. So, it's interesting you say not just survey data and what people say they're doing, but how they're actually acting. So, we have read this book at Pi called "Everybody Lies," and it's based around the idea that in surveys, obviously, people give you the answer that they're thinking you probably want to hear, but nobody really lies to their search engine. So, if they're searching something, they're probably genuinely interested in finding out about it. And we have some data when we were looking across the sustainability topic across different categories - food, retail, automotive, and travel being the main ones - that suggest there is a significant increase in people researching more sustainable alternatives. So, even if they're perhaps not taking that next step to actually changing the products they're buying or changing their travel behaviors or their cars yet, they're definitely interested in finding out more about how they could do their bit to help the planet. And here you can see a couple of charts. So, the blue is showing search volume growth between May 2018 and April 2019, and then the purple is May 2020 to April 2021. And you can see across all the categories that we looked at that there was an increase in search volume in these topics.
We can go into some of it in more detail later, but veganism obviously is a rising trend, and we're seeing many companies now capitalize on that additional opportunity. And sustainable retail is pretty much mainly driven by plastic-free searches or alternatives to single-use plastic, which is great to see. And it's great to see that continuing to rise because there was an initial spike in that in 2019 when the Attenborough program about plastic in our oceans came out, but that is looking like it's continuing. So that's kind of a top-level view across the categories. I've just picked out a couple of very significant search terms that we've seen a really good increase in. So, everything from "zero waste store near me," which has seen a 511 percent increase over the past year, which is very similar - that's why it's important to look at the language - it's very similar to this top growth search here, "refill shop near me," which saw a 4,000 increase in searches over the past year. So, people are definitely starting to find this more interesting and wanting to play their part in positive change for the environment. And just quickly again, when we drill down into the vegan category, we saw that "meat alternative" was the most searched search term within the vegan category, which had taken over research into veganism in 2020. And so, I think that demonstrates that people are willing to switch their behaviors; even meat eaters who want to have that in their diet are looking for something to change over to, and because of that commercial opportunity, I think it's been really interesting to see that non-vegan brands are creating vegan products, which just goes to show they genuinely believe they think there's a real commercial opportunity here.
So, companies like Galaxy and KFC, and we've seen other fast food chains do this as well, are creating vegan products. And, you know, I don't think they'd be doing that unless they believe there was genuine commercial opportunity there. We've covered this already, but this yellow line here, you can see the spike in 2019, but there is still an increase in single-use alternatives here. We can see that people are looking for more sustainable fashion options, particularly in the winter months. And you can also see, even though it's not as high as it was in 2019, that people are searching for sustainable beauty products too, so there's definitely interest out there and it's definitely increasing.
One thing to point out, which is really important, is Google tries to understand the intent of a searcher and serves them the most interesting content for their purpose. And when a lot of these sustainable searches are coming up, the features you're seeing in Google are predominantly answer cards and people also ask features as well. So if you do want to attract these types of customers, a lot of the things they're looking for is information. And I think they want to check that you're actually authentically driving for sustainable products and it's not just clever advertising. So if you are going to introduce this kind of product into your product range or you want to satisfy these types of consumers, it will be important to produce informative content on your website to get to the top into Google placeholders for that. And I feel like I've just spoken loads.
So, I thought that was wonderful and what a positive sentiment to see from consumer up. Yeah, I think it's so good. I mean, unfortunately, I'm a bit of a cynic and I think businesses will only really make real change when they see it's gonna impact their bottom line. And I think finally, the consumer demand is so significant that it can't be ignored anymore. And today, as a relevant retailer, you're just going to have to make some of these significant changes to your product range and your ways of servicing and delivering products to customers. I think money makes the world go around and people think that's a force for bad. Ultimately, if the consumer is made aware and then they're given access to sustainable products, then it will drive change for the positive.
You said about David Attenborough, we also saw Cowspiracy and Sea Spirits spike our traffic for sustainable terms quite dramatically as that awareness rose. I think what you said then was authenticity. Yeah, and I think if brands don't do this authentically, then people see through it very quickly now. And with awareness of sustainability comes awareness of that commercial opportunity and comes awareness of greenwashing. Yeah, I think now more than ever, retailers, supply chains, their approaches to their business, and sustainability goals and their authenticity of their actions in those spaces will become under greater and greater scrutiny, so they really have to lift every stone. Yeah, completely agree, and the information is out there. Consumers, I don't think have ever been more informed, so you can't kind of pull the wool over people's eyes.
Yeah, and there's a wonderful podcast I read because outrage and optimism, and you know, outrage is a sort of frightening word for a retailer, but it is something that people feel very entitled to do. You know, they feel very outraged when they find out that retailers aren't doing what they should be in this space. You know, I know that the recent story last week was Amazon throwing away end of line stock, destroying lots of goods. You know, it's really seen in a dim light, it's a very bad brand impression to not be seen to be sustainable. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then we've got sort of amongst the fashion industry, there are retailers there that are saying exactly which factories different items are being manufactured in, and you can trace each product right the way through the supply chain. And people, because consumers are worried about the people that are producing the goods that they are then buying as well.
So there's a need to be transparent right the way through and tracking exactly every movement each product makes, and we're starting to see that on some of the product labeling as well, which is interesting, but that is a huge task from a data point of view for retailers to be able to implement. Yeah, I can say with the retailers are changing, and the big one that we've been seeing in the last year is the amount of retailers that are announcing that they're going to be net carbon zero by a certain date. We've got people like Amazon at a certain level. Jeff Bezos a couple of years ago announced that they're fed up. Amazon is fed up of being in the middle of the herd on this issue and they're going to use their size and scale to make a difference and then putting down the pledge. If a company with as much physical infrastructure as Amazon, which delivers more than 10 billion items a year, can beat the Paris agreement 10 years early, then any company can.
I agree with that, and with great power comes great responsibility. And, you know, we all like to Amazon bash, I think in the e-commerce market, but they've got a lot of power to make change. One of the biggest things I think that's going wrong in that space is they've over-rationalized their packaging, so they have only 16 packaging skews for 110 million items, which means they're shipping a lot of air, a huge amount of air. And you know, that might not seem unsustainable, but it means more vehicles, it means the carbon footprint of their supply chain is so much larger than it needs to be because of their packaging choices, because of the amount of air in their supply chain. You know, void fill is not just a wasted material, it represents air in your supply chain, and shipping air isn't good for anybody. You know, and I think a lot of people are making the running joke about, oh my goodness, you know, this small product arrived in this huge box, but it has a much bigger implication than, you know, a wasteful box, wasteful material. It's the air in the supply chain that really increases the footprint of delivery, and it's something that really needs to be scrutinized by all retailers, not least because it's a material saving and it will save on your bottom line, but because of the amount of air that's being shipped, you know, actually e-commerce as a model stands to be very, very sustainable because it can eliminate a huge number of consumer journeys and consolidate them down to a few much fewer number of vehicles that can do the shopping deliveries for lots and lots of people. But that isn't true if those vehicles are full of air. So yeah, it's something that we scrutinize quite heavily with our customers and something that, you know, I'd like to raise awareness of because it might not seem like a big issue for you guys, but the wider ramifications are a much less efficient supply chain with a much higher carbon footprint.
It seems ironic as a packaging retailer to spend most of our time getting people to use less of it, but you know it is a waste material and it needs to be minimized. Space in the supply chain is something that I think everyone should be aware of. Yeah, it's been interesting in recent years seeing retailers collaborating on return journeys of the trucks as well, so that they're not going around completely empty and picking up from different people. So we'll see more of that in the future as well, I hope so.
Yeah, same with lots of companies announcing they're going to be net zero carbon by 2030, 2020, or 2030, 2040, and the Paris agreement of 2050 setting science-based targets. But a lot of what's happening is they're having to measure right the way through the supply chain because without that measurement, you can't actually improve on it. So that's a huge job for everybody within the organization.
The reason that brings to mind, Emma, is the Mayborn Group, who owned Tommy Tippee and the Grow Bag. They are looking to hit a climate-neutral supply chain by 2030, eliminate all single-use plastics, and have a fully sustainable operation. I think they're really impressive in what they're doing there, and that's across their entire organization, which is large, including their manufacturing base, some of which is their party. It's very, very interesting.
And what you mentioned in terms of scrutinizing and data collection, they've actually allocated an internal sustainability team to that project, which is purely focused on that. And I think that they're a shining example of someone that's setting very ambitious targets.
That's interesting to hear. But there are lots of new concepts as well, as well as that large picture of the net-zero carbon, reducing greenhouse gases, your scope 1 and scope 2 emissions. We've got some of these fun different tests going on amongst different retailers, where the large companies are trying to emulate some of the things that are happening with the niche and smaller players as well.
Sophie, it was interesting, the search results through people looking for zero packaging near me to go and take along their containers and fill up with their dried goods, but the larger supermarkets are testing it as well. And some of the large brands like Unilever are looking at how the different packaging solutions could work.
Then we've also had things like rental models, retailers buying back their product once consumers have stopped using them, things looking at the different end of life. If you just pop onto the next slide...
So sorry. So we've got Waitrose there. We've got, I think some of the other ones, there's Mud Jeans in the Netherlands. So not only are they reducing the amount of water in producing the jeans, you have a rental model where at the end of the year, you can send your jeans back to them, and they will then shred the material and remake them into new jeans.
Headphone companies, again, you rent them monthly, at the end of the year or when you want to have an upgrade, you send them back to the company. They will clean them, upgrade them, do anything that needs doing, so you always have the latest model. But the parts they take out of them are then used to remake new headphones. Bibo Barefoot have launched Revivo as well, which takes in their second life shoes, refurbishes them, and resells them. And I think they also won innovative products of the year this year with a fully recycled material-based shoe. So they're a wonderful brand in this space that are really practicing what they're preaching.
Yeah, I think it's interesting to see as well. It's kind of become popular to make sure that your clothing lines are becoming sustainable. So Patagonia is an example of that. Millennials, in particular, and Gen Z just absolutely love Patagonia. And you're seeing the rise of apps like Depop, where people are much more interested in buying secondhand and vintage clothes. I mean, I think I said to you, Emma, I even saw in Asda the other day, they have a secondhand clothes section now. You're definitely noticing a significant change in behavior across all sorts of companies, big or small, and all sorts of categories as well.
Yeah, well, H&M have invested in 24.38 million dollars or 20 million euros to own 70 percent of a company which is effectively an online equivalent of a charity shop or vintage shop. But everything is sold there through different brands or different product categories as if you were buying from a standard new e-commerce fashion shop. Then that's the way that the market is going. I think the fact that really stuck out for me in the sustainability white paper, in question, was the fact that the textiles industry had a higher carbon footprint than all transport combined. So yeah, it's a big area, a very, very big area.
Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting that sort of gently moving surveys anyway are moving away from fast fashion to a certain extent. You can definitely see advertised all over the, well, we see it with our customers, advertising, you know, rent a dress for weddings or like we said, secondhand and vintage sections to stores as well. The increase is there.
I love this idea of a search engine eye view. People saying you'll see those spins very early on. I'm sure it is, and we have a one to remove. So obviously I see it from a business perspective because what we now have is retailers coming to us and saying we need to be sustainable. How do we do it? Whereas we've been providing sustainability in the packaging and e-commerce space for 10 years now, and previously, our meetings were half an hour on why that's important, half an hour explaining how we can justify that as a bottom-line saving to make it a good commercial decision. We can get rid of that first half an hour now because retailers are coming to us and saying that we absolutely have to be sustainable. They recognize that packaging is where the brand physically meets the customer in the real world, so it's a hugely important touchpoint. And if it's let down with a single-use plastic or a poor approach, then they know that it damages their brand perception. So it's very interesting. We've seen that conversation really change from let's sell the efficiency of making this choice to oh okay, you recognize that now, your consumers are asking for this. We can just talk about how we can help you with it, which is really, very, very significant change.
Yeah, and the change is great to see, and I think you'll see it's so interesting when you look at it at a macro level of kind of mass consumer or human behavior really in search engines. So every time like you said, the Adam, for example, earlier, but any Netflix documentary, you know, Cowspiracy or Sea Spirity comes out, there is that shift in searches straight away. And it doesn't go down after that. I think it's these Netflix documentaries and others have been so influential into people wanting to change their behavior. It's great. Awareness is something that can't be undone.
Exactly. It's interesting what you were saying about the packaging and things there, Josh. In e-commerce, it's always been sort of about getting your brand onto the product packaging and all about that customer experience. You have the unboxing videos on YouTube and things like that. And then now how that is changing, changing yet again.
Yeah, I mean, one of the biggest trends that we see is people removing that lamination, that big glossy approach, and falling back to a more craft-oriented approach. Vegetable-based inks and really scrutinizing what they're doing there, and how, even from a tangible point of view, that packaging communicates their sustainability goals. You know, there are still some high-fashion brands and premium brands that really are all about that perceived value and a very polished appearance. But there are some very surprising brands really opening their eyes to creating things like garment bags from paper, things like jewelry bags made from recycled ocean nets, and we've worked on so. There really is a lot of consciousness within businesses of the need to make this change, and the trend really is to make sure the packaging is communicating that with the retailer. And we work with people to make sure that, first of all, they're making good choices and they're explaining those choices just by using the official markers to the very end level, the sort of top level in our eyes of making good choices. And then, evangelizing those choices in a way that adds character to the brand and perceived value. So explaining that this is a recycled box and why you've made that choice, explaining that this could be a box again if you make a good choice as a customer to recycle it. You know, and just in a way that adds character to the brand and adds to the brand's journey and voice, is something that we're definitely seeing a huge trend towards.
Yeah, I'd be interested in them with sort of how labeling and QR codes and things like that, and connecting the packaging to digital is going to. Yeah, one of our brands, Bubble Line Bags, which is a bubble wrap-lined bag, it's not a great product for the environment. What we've done is re-engineer them so they're very easy to separate and put a QR code on the back to say where your nearest LDPE recycling center is. And based upon your location, it will tell you, "Oh, it's at the supermarket, put this in the frog." LDPE can be recycled very easily with all carrier bags. It's not curbside recycled yet, and that's, you know, that's a big problem. And also, we're partnered with 1% for the Planet, and so we evangelize the 1% of customers' spend that goes through us, that goes to the planet, and also the Rainforest Trust partnership. So we're one of the key sponsors of the Rainforest Trust. We're going to protect 7 million square meters of rainforest in the next 12 months; I think we're at one and a half now. And what we do with our customers is allow them to share their contribution to that and to 1% for the Planet through their packaging purchases. And with some of our really large tenders, you know, these are big numbers, and they're really, really big numbers; some of our retailers stand to give, you know, £25,000 to charity and protect 250 to 300,000 square meters of rainforest easily with their year's packaging purchases with us. So, it's really connecting that journey and communicating it throughout your customer interaction points and explaining why it's important to you as a brand.
I think Finisterre stands out as a really great brand in this space. They talk about; they have a whole dedicated section to sustainability and sustainable packaging choices on their branding on their paper mailing bags. That they use is second to none in terms of how it communicates why they've made that choice and what it means for the planet, and it really does it in a characterful way.
So you're thinking then that there's more of a move towards being planet positive rather than just net zero carbon? Yeah, well, you mentioned Patagonia in its awareness, Sophie, people, planet, profit. It's his model; he invented 1% for the Planet, Yvon Chouinard, a bit of a boy in my eyes, you know, he's a climber and an outdoors man. And he believes in the quality of a product rather than fast fashion and disposable fashion. And that's something that's really ringing true now; likes of B Corp and 1% they're gaining so much traction with businesses. I think that's so interesting that you mentioned Patagonia in line with Finisterre as well because what they both do really well is sell the lifestyle, right? So it's not just about the product as well, you know, it's about living that more sustainable and enjoyable lifestyle, which is a trend we're seeing rise along with sustainability. Like enjoying the outdoors, being part of the outdoors, like we were talking about before the webinar, climbing, surfing, like using those natural forces to enjoy your free time. And with we're seeing a rise in all of interest in those sports at the same time as well, so it's almost going hand in hand, people are enjoying the outdoors, the data says, or they're more interested in it more than ever. And so, therefore, they're interested in looking after it and they're interested in brands that they can relate to because they go in line with that sort of lifestyle.
I know there's a global neoprene shortage, so it's got to be going somewhere; everyone's getting wrapped up in it to go out and enjoy the sea. So yeah, it's exciting, I think, but I mean, as a brand, you know, those guys have a really shining example of how you can be people, planet, profit, and how it actually differentiates you in the market; they are a premium brand and they produce great goods, and they've got really loyal followers because of it. And Finisterre, I would say, you know, a British equivalent, and you know, they have a wonderful brand presentation and story.
That's interesting; so the solution isn't always obvious, as you were saying about some of the different packaging decisions that companies have had to make. And we've got this year the new plastic packaging tax as well. Yeah, well, I mean, there's a huge problem. The thing with plastic is very interesting from my perspective is that we talk about environment versus climate, and if you talk about COP and their goals, it's about climate neutral. And I mean, plastic has a very low carbon footprint and it's highly recyclable. But if it ends up in the environment, you will be raised as a picture of a turtle with a straw in its nose, which is a horrible thing to see, and it's not something that is good for the environment. So, there's a big battle there, and you know, single-use plastics have to go, but they do serve a strong purpose in our supply chains. You know, pallet wraps are a huge issue, pallet stabilization, and the amount of goods saved from damage in transit because of that product, it's huge; things like cucumbers being shrink-wrapped in supermarkets save 14 times the waste if you, of not doing it, and the carbon footprint associated with that waste saving is so much higher than the issue of the plastic around the product. So, it isn't always as simple as it may look on the face of it, and one of the things that Mayborn Group are really struggling with is that they plastic wrap their bottles for babies and there's a huge perception of hygiene associated with that, and new moms are very aware of that. And so it becomes a very difficult challenge as to how to solve that, and the big thing from my point of view is infrastructure, and that's why the plastic packaging tax is so relevant.
Anna McArthur Foundation, if you have a chance to look at it, is a wonderful source of information on this. Seventy-eight million tons, as of 2018, of plastic were used in the EU, and 98% of that came from virgin plastic feedstocks. That means only two percent of it is recycled plastic, which is a huge problem. The reason is virgin feedstocks are so cheap; it's a waste product of the oil industry. Six percent of oil consumption right now goes into making plastics, and they think that will get a lot higher if we're on our current trajectory. The problem with it is that if there isn't an incentive on people to use post-consumer waste in their packaging products, then you will never beat the price of a waste material of the oil industry. Polyethylene is made from ethanol, and that is literally burnt off as you distill crude oil into its various different forms and refine it. So, it's either burnt off or made into a useful product, so it's a very, very cheap material. There's a reason that we're having the plastic here right now; it's such a cheap solution for such a wide number of problems.
So, it isn't always obvious, but the plastic packaging tax basically pushes people to use at least 30% post-consumer waste in their packaging material. Anything that isn't meeting that criteria will be charged at £220 per ton, which is a fairly big overhead for some large organizations. And so, it should bring about some consumer behavior and business behavior that changes that model and drives investment into the infrastructure for recycling. I think the statistics were, of those 78 million tonnes, 38% was leaked into the environment—pause because that's awful—40% ended up in landfill, and then the rest went to recycling, which is 12%. And of that 12%, 8% of it was burnt to make energy, the rest went into cascaded recycling, which is lower-grade products, and two percent made it back into that initial number to be reused to make the same grade of plastic product that it originally came from. There's absolutely no need for that to be the way it is, and the big, big issue is infrastructure. So, I think we work with a lot of retailers right now to eliminate single-use plastics from their supply chain and move to paper-based products, which have a much shorter carbon cycle and are obviously biodegradable and fully recyclable as well.
But again, the need for things to be biodegradable just leads us to question why there isn't as much recycling going on as there should be. And it's really the infrastructure behind our supply chains that are causing this. So, passive action, I think, is massively positive because it puts pressure through legislation on exactly the right area, which is the recycling infrastructure. But it isn't as cut as dry as plastic is a bad product because it still has some really powerful uses in our supply chain. And, sir, absolutely, let me sort of look back at some of the key goals of COP26 this year. It's like some stretching targets that countries are going to have to deliver on, so accelerating the phaseout of coal, containing deforestation, speeding up the switch to electric vehicles, therefore the impact on logistics, and encouraging investment in renewables. So, these are all things that retailers are going to have to do, and the impacts on their supply chain but also on the brands and their different companies within their supply chain that are supplying to them.
We see that companies like fashion platform Solando is mandating that all of the companies that sell on its platform have to work towards their own net-zero targets. Yeah, I think that's where legislation and infrastructure providers have so much power; they can bring about change through their own rules and through raising awareness. It's absolutely massive. Another one that sort of comes to mind that isn't obvious, and I'm going to mention it because it's a product we've just launched, but thermal labels. So, this is obviously a hugely ubiquitous solution in e-commerce and all have a BPA coating on them. And actually, the EU banned BPA as a material because of its properties of being a carcinogen and emulating estrogen, and it's also very poor for marine life. They banned BPA, and so all the market's done is moved to BPF, which is another version of the same plastic. And so, all of our labels in e-commerce have a plastic coating that's what's burned black and has great scannability for the barcode. So, we've just launched our eco labels under the Priory Elements brand, which has a vitamin C coating, which is fully biodegradable, isn't a single-use plastic, doesn't end up as microplastics. And one of the big problems is that we're recycling a lot more of our cardboard boxes, and that involves a pulping process where you soak them in water, mush them up, pop them down, and then flush that water out into the ecosystem, which is a lovely thing as long as there isn't a huge amount of BPA and BPF and microplastics in it. So, one thing that isn't an obvious solution but makes a big difference is actually the choice of substrate you put on your labels. And so, that's a rich issue we wanted to raise awareness of. I know Finisterre is adopting those straight away, and quite a few of our key brands are moving to them. And it isn't necessarily an obvious thing, so you have to tell a story about it because the customer won't know that you've made that choice, but it's an awesome problem to solve, and it's tightly linked with some of our health issues associated with plastic being in our food chain. So, it's a good issue to address.
That's interesting. So, telling stories then, as Sophie was saying, about that's what's going to change consumer behavior, is understanding and the transparency that they're going to see when they go onto the retailers and brand sites. So, I think as well, you know, we were saying this earlier, but the authenticity of it, so people want to make the right choices. We're seeing that in what they're searching for. They're really trying to inform themselves to make the right choices. But they're also, I think we've seen another data dubious about the truth telling of certain brands. So, if you're going to do it, you have to inform yourself and make sure you're doing it all properly to be able to inform your customers. And then they are authentic and relatable stories, and they can always lead your marketing campaigns then for certain target audiences. So, inform yourself, listen to people like Josh, who obviously knows a huge amount about this, and do it properly. Thank you, yeah, well, Sophie just so then rounding up then is are there pieces of is there advice that you could give to companies looking at this area then about putting the theory into practice, telling those stories? Are there quick wins out there?
Yeah, I think, well, looking at search data, you can pinpoint precisely which issues are most important to your customers, which ones they're most interested in, and which issues are most likely to pique their interest and interest them as that story. So, I think if you guide your decision-making by what people are interested in changing and help them find that information and be the brand that educates them about how to make better choices, then not only are you going to win that one-off purchase from them, you might also win their loyalty as a customer again, like I said, if you do it in an authentic way. So, I think staying close to the data, both consumer-led as well as research-led, is going to be really key for retailers who want to make an impact here. Brilliant. And Josh, quick wins or longer-term challenges?
From my perspective, I was going to answer the last one, which is really to ask hard questions of yourselves first. I think, you know, I mentioned the Maybelline Group first because they are scrutinizing their supply chain end to end, and they are one of the most aware companies of the issues in their supply chain that I've come across. And that then allows them to set goals, to be authentic and make changes, and their whole plan is to tell a fantastic user story.
In terms of quick wins and long-term changes, quick wins from my perspective are to look at your void fill usage and your over-rationalization of packaging and look at reducing your outbound cube. It has a huge implication for wasted material in your supply chain. It can reduce damages because actually items are already damaged when they accelerate and then stop in an item during transit. So, look at your void fill as an opportunity to be much more sustainable, to reduce your outbound cube, which you can improve your carriage rates and reduce your material costs as a business. There's one thing I'd like everybody to scrutinize; it would be their void fill and wasted space.
And long-term opportunities are to tell a story and be authentic. You know, it's wonderful that you have the silo, which is your ops manager, going, "We're going to be really efficient and eco," and that's wonderful. If you don't connect that with your merchandising and marketing and customer service teams to make sure that your brand voice encapsulates the good sustainable choices you're making within your supply chain, then you miss the value of it. It really can be a great tool for building customer loyalty, customer retention, and perception of brand. And I really think those would be my short and long-term recommendations.
Brilliant! That storytelling then gives me a good opportunity to plug the next sustainability report, which will be coming out in the autumn. I'm in the process of researching and writing that at the moment. So, any brands, retailers out there that want to come and share their journeys, come and tell us more about their stories and where they are in their developments, then please do get in touch.
Thank you, Josh. Thank you, Sophie, for a very informative chat, and thank you to everyone for listening. Been a pleasure. Thank you very much. Thanks very much for having us.
