Environmental Sustainability

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.

Ikea launched a new marketing campaign for its annual sale, transforming its iconic flat boxes into home furnishings. The simple yet effective "You Can Get More" campaign plays on the concept of quantity, presenting three different pieces of furniture made entirely of cardboard boxes.

Sustainable packaging is a topic that stymies most online sellers. No one quite has the answers yet, but most admit the issue will play a larger and more important role in brand development in the future.

Home furnishings retailer Ikea plans to install solar energy panels on five more U.S. stores, all of them in the Midwest. Implementation of these projects will extend Ikea's solar presence to nearly 85 percent of its U.S. locations. Pending governmental permits, installation can begin this winter and completion is expected next summer.

Wal-Mart unveiled a blog on sustainability featuring posts from Andrea Thomas, the retailer’s senior vice president of sustainability. Called The Green Room, Thomas introduced the blog as an opportunity to “develop into a vibrant conversation about helping people live better around the globe."

Amsterdam-based design firm Como Park was commissioned by Levi’s to create a new store interior concept. Como Park repurposed much of the lighting and wood flooring from Levi’s Bread and Butter trade show booth. It also scoured Amsterdam for salvaged materials including old doors, bicycles and furniture.

Macy’s is partnering with Earthworks System to create a recyclable gift card program for its customers. Once customers have used up the balance on their gift cards, the retailer will collect the empty cards to return to Earthworks System, where they will be reprocessed in printable sheets and resold to printers to make new cards.