Show Notes | S3 Ep7 | Talking Sustainability

Special Guest, Juli Lassow, Founder & Principle of JHL Solutions

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INTRODUCTION

Consumers continue to demand change from retailers and brands. They are shopping their values. But has this become simply a marketing message for brands and retailers today? Or are we making real progress on the sustainability front?

What’s missing today is a simple framework, or a set of principles, that retailers and brands can implement quickly and efficiently.  We discuss 4 pragmatic principles for retailers with our returning friend and special guest, Juli Lassow, Founder & Principal of JHL Solutions.

THE CONVERSATION

Juli started by stating that Sustainability is a massive concept, intimidating and difficult to gain traction on.  How’s that for starting out on a high note?

Juli then shared that like any good consultant, she likes to leverage a framework to tackle a strategic challenge. Within the sustainability space, she is a massive fan of the Circular Economy to help inform her approach. She looks to circularity to outline her priorities for retailers and their brand partners:

  • Reduce waste and pollution – from the food we eat, and the clothes we wear, packaging that all of it arrives in..
  • Extend product life – reduce, reuse, recycle, compost – but importantly – shift the focus to repair, resale, remanufacture -tightening the resource “loop” as much as possible…
  • Rebuild natural systems – there are two sides to the circular approaches – the mechanical and the organic.  Natural systems are most commonly found on the organic side of the circular philosophy.
  • https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy-diagram

The conversation focused on 4 pragmatic principles:

  1. Products
  2. Production Partners
  3. Packaging
  4. Profitability/Price

This is all grounded in Measurement. What gets measured gets managed. Once defined, you need to socialize internally and externally to stakeholders: customers, shareholders, supplier partners.

LINKS

CONCLUSION

These are pragmatic principles you can implement today.  It’s about action. It’s about moving forward.   Of course, there’s much more to it like the retail ecosystem, logistics, store operations for example.  But the challenge is to start and to make continuous progress on.

HEROES & CHANGE MAKERS | Our New Feature

Our new feature, Heroes and Change Makers, concluded our discussion.

We invited Juli to select our Hero & Change Maker and she selected the leadership team at Kroger.

Juli stated, Kroger has been recognized as one of “America’s Most Responsible Companies” by Newsweek, earning the distinction for the fourth consecutive year. The recognition was in part due to the company’s Zero Hunger | Zero Waste social and environmental impact plan. Over the past 5 years, Kroger has donated 2.3 billion meals to fight hunger.

“This recognition is a testament to the incredible dedication of our associates and our collective commitment to end hunger through Zero Hunger | Zero Waste,” said Rodney McMullen, Kroger’s chairman and CEO. “Kroger plays a critical role in building a more resilient and sustainable food system for all of America.”


Kroger also partners with another notable name in the CPG sustainability front – Terracycle and specifically Loop.  LOOP made its U.S. debut earlier this year through a partnership with The Kroger Co., to provide consumers with a way to go from single-use packaging to one that is reusable.

We agree with Juli – great selection.

This is RETAIL DONE RIGHT. Thank you for listening. And please join our conversation.

Let’s go shopping!

Jeff Fisher & Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz

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RETAIL DONE RIGHT is produced and hosted by Jeff Fisher & Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz