Woolworths: Living and Still Giving

Sooo, as a little inspiration for my mission I visited one of the biggest South African department stores to get a flavour for what a responsible business model looks like. And yes, they are called Woolworths, but no- it's not the same as our liquified former 1p sweet specialists who sadly disappeared from our UK shores a couple of years ago. They were awarded Responsible Retailer of the Year in 2008 at the World Retail Congress and have their 'Good Business Journey' which has been running for a few years now and includes programmes for social development and minimising environmental impacts. They have a heavy focus on reporting (which Ernst and Young have rated as 'Excellent' in their Corporate Reporting awards) and 2012 is their first milestone where they will assess what has been achieved against their 200 targets. As a provider of clothing. food, financial services and home and beauty products it's no mean feat to mainstream ethical concerns across all business areas in such a large organisation. They get a little help from our chums M&S here, who have no formal ties to Woolworths but a longstanding connection between the families leads to sharing of information, best practice and research across the 2 corporations.

As well as sourcing 95% of their (very nice) food from local sources they have a commitment to focus on packaging and energy usage as well as improving the impact of their supply chain activities on water resources. The problems faced by the African textiles industry has led to serious difficulty in sourcing SA grown materials. To keep a proportion of their clothing materials organic and sustainable they've had to introduce blends of textiles so the overheads still make it financially viable. I think most people interested in the sustainable development of worldwide textiles industry would agree that there are many difficult decisions to be made when it comes to sourcing and labour as the infrastructure is still in great need of improvement. However, I think this is an admirable attempt to address not only these concerns but also wider environmental issues such as food security, combating climate change, energy & transport, water quality and availability, agricultural practice and animal welfare (with which they seek assistance from WWF). Many, many European companies could learn a lot from their persistence to incorporate their principles across the organisation as a result of consumer pressure but also their importance the company themselves attach to that commitment. After all, it makes good business sense to protect the environments and communities that provide your customer base. Special thanks to Justin Smith who manages the Good Business Journey who took the time to promote what his company are doing to play their part in African development, a reminder to other corporates that they shouldn't forget to talk to the little (5"3) people.