Imagine that you’re an electronics retailer and a customer asks you where the chips in your line of smart phones comes from. Or you’re a clothier, and customers want to know who supplied the wool for the suits you are selling. Would you be lost for an answer?
Retailers get these types of questions everyday. Questions about energy are now being asked too. Environmental campaigners and their supporters are pressing retailers and manufacturers to answer detailed inquiries on fuel used in trucks moving their goods. Is the fuel derived from oil sands crude? What energy is used to make products and send them to market? Is this energy from oil sands crude?
Retailers have been asked about whether their trucking fleets use transportation fuels derived from oil sands crude. Photo: iStockphoto
It’s not a bad thing that retailers get asked tough questions these days. However, for such discussions to be meaningful, it’s important everyone sticks to the facts.
Even with strong and visible brands, many consumer businesses feel they are ill-equipped to participate in the debate about oil sands, let alone justify the small details of their own energy use. (When the ENGO Forest Ethics claimed in 2010 that Timberland was boycotting oil sands, the company rejected the allegation, saying "We do not boycott fuels … because we don’t have enough visibility into the fuel sources our carriers use to do so intelligently.” Levi-Strauss made a similar comment on their blog.)
ForestEthics continues to pressure major retailers. As a result, retailers looking for answers are approaching us for information. That’s a good thing, as we think it’s important for them to have the facts needed for engagement in an informed discussion. And it’s nice to know that we’re being sought out as experts. (It’s not every day a major retailer with a significant brand seeks our opinion and there’s always a possibility of free product samples.)
So what do we tell them? First, all energy products have a carbon footprint, either in terms of their production or distribution - often both. Second, we encourage retailers to be part of the conversation about the kinds of energy available to them and the energy they use.
As Suncor’s Chief Executive Officer, Rick George, has repeatedly pointed out, to secure a safe and sustainable supply of energy in the long term means not favoring one type of energy over another but ensuring we have the right energy mix.
Having started this dialogue, we can go beyond oil sands. What about fair-trade products based on the use of renewable energy? What are the parameters that would define “responsible” energy? Would switching from coal to renewable-generated electricity be a more meaningful place to start for retailers wishing to reduce their carbon footprint? All difficult questions, but we’re here to be part of that conversation.
