Environmental Sustainability

Target announced that by late 2012 it would stop carrying any products that have been sandblasted during the manufacturing process. Target, which operates 1,762 stores, has teamed with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to investigate responsible sourcing solutions.

Fifty-one percent of Ikea's energy is now derived from renewable resources, up from 47 percent in the prior fiscal year, according to the company's 2011 sustainability report. In the past fiscal year, Ikea installed solar panels on 40 buildings in seven countries and 60 wind turbines produced 152 gigawatt hours of "green" electricity this year, equivalent to around 12 percent of the electricity needed to run all Ikea stores and distribution centers.

Tesco is making headlines for actions that relate to its corporate citizenship stance. To start, the brand has decided to ditch its participation in an "eco-labeling" scheme which was aimed to calculate the carbon footprint of each product slapped with a "carbon-reduction" label provided by Carbon Trust.

Mountain Gear took the challenge of a reduced footprint to an extraordinary length — when the company had outgrown its corporate offices and distribution center, it took over an abandoned manufacturing facility.

Electric delivery trucks can cost up to 12 percent less to operate than their diesel counterparts, according to a MIT study that used data from Staples and ISO New England, the nonprofit firm that runs New England's electric power grid.

Back in January 2007, Tesco pledged to develop a program that would place carbon labels on the more than 50,000 products the retailer sold. Now comes word from the company that it's decided to end the program, saying it's too complicated and costly.

By the time you’re reading this, the 2011 holiday season will be over. As such, you’re probably analyzing what worked and what didn’t during the critical fourth quarter and, believe it or not, beginning to plan for this year’s holidays. When making those plans, don’t forget to add the latest holiday shopping tradition to your marketing calendar: Green Tuesday.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) has released the first industrywide Retail Sustainability Report. The 2012 report highlights sustainability leadership in the retail industry and discusses retail's environmental, social and community impacts — those impacts within a company's four walls, in the products they sell, and in the broader communities they touch.

Best Buy is hoping to do in the electronics market what other retailers and manufacturers have done in the appliances market — promote energy efficiency. In fact, Best Buy believes this will give it competitive edge against the likes of Wal-Mart and Amazon.

As sales of electric cars begin to pick up, retailers nationwide are installing electric vehicle charging stations in parking lots so consumers can plug in and juice up their vehicles while browsing inside. Leading the way is drugstore chain Walgreens which is installing chargers at about 800 stores nationwide.