Green Retailers

Contents

1. Green Retailers
2. How to be a green retailer
3. Case Study: Loose Fit surf shops and cafe
4. Save energy and money: Top tips

Case Study: Loose Fit surf shops and cafe

Jon Finch is a good ambassador for green retail. He's the founder and managing director of Loose Fit, which owns surf shops in Braunton (Devon) and Bristol. The company has won the Surfer's Path magazine Green Wave award for two years running, winning praise for its "unrivalled attempts to fuse environmental awareness into a surf retail business". It also won a Green Apple Environmental award in 2007.

We asked Jon to explain where his firm had managed to reduce its impact. "I think our green credentials are split into three areas," he said. "There's the bigger stuff that costs us money like planting a tree every time we sell surfboards, the recycling of everything we can and so-on."

"Then there is easy stuff like signing up to a green electricity tariff, or sourcing ethical and organic suppliers wherever possible. Then there's also lots of smaller little things we do that probably go under the radar."

Jon explained that the snacks sold by the cafe in the Braunton store are sourced from cooperative wholefoods wholesaler Suma, while a local organic farm supplies the milk and cream. Even the used coffee grounds are composted, or "spread on one of our gardens where they act as a slug deterrent, add nitrogen, add texture to the soil and help retain moisture".

The shops' mail order business has been given a green focus too. As Jon explains: "We used to send products in those waxy bubble wrap-lined envelopes. They can work well, but they're a nightmare to re-use, so we changed our mail order packaging to 75%-recycled three-ply paper sacks, sealed with paper tape. They look great, are easily re-used and to top it off, are fully recyclable. Just lovely!"

It's clearly had an effect, not only cutting the business' impact on the environment, but boosting its profile among potential customers. In the words of Surfer's Path: "It's a tough one to pull off, but... Loose Fit appears to offer a viable blueprint and inspiration to surf shops everywhere that want to acknowledge retail's role in the great chain reaction that human consumption is having on this planet."