Preparing the business for the future using new consumer typologies

Jack Cunningham is Climate Change & Environment Manager at Sainsbury’s.

Two months ago we joined Unilever and Forum for the Future to launch “Consumer Futures”. It's been a significant year for important sustainability initiatives, following in the footsteps of Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan and our own 20by20 sustainability plan.

We started working on Consumer Futures two years ago, about the same time that we started thinking about our Sustainability Plan. Whilst the two concepts are related, Consumer Futures is about the art of the possible for brands, rather than making firm commitments or predictions. This is why it is unique. Coming together with Unilever and Forum was a fun, inspiring and at times challenging experience as we sought to create new consumer ‘scenarios’ that brands could use to help create the ‘pull’ on sustainability for their consumers. I found the sessions rich and rewarding, especially to work with colleagues from Sainsbury’s but also to meet new people with different approaches and thinking around sustainability.

Consumer Futures 2020 from Forum for the Future on Vimeo.

Right about the time that we were starting to do the ground work with our teams on our 20 by 20 Sustainability Plan. By using ‘scenario testing’ in developing some of our commitments, we were using the same techniques to create the Consumer Futures scenarios Teams brought together from across the business brought a very different perspective to the project than would have been the case if ‘sustainability professionals’ had been involved.

The pertinent aspect about both these projects, our own 20 by 20 and the work with Forum and Unilever was that we were looking at long term, strategic, trends and thinking about the consequences for us now. As UK retailer sourcing globally, the challenge associated with resource use has come to the fore. What was yesterday’s plastic bag, health and safety or ethical trade issue is now really about where and how we continue to bring products to market and therefore ultimately the relevance of the business in the future in a world where there are constraints to resource use.

Consumer Futures is therefore a useful tool in helping people in organisations to think through some of those longer term issues from the perspective of the consumer. It can be used by our commercial teams as resource in their thinking and delivery associated with our own commitments and crucially can be used to continue engaging colleagues about sustainability and to continue to stimulate futures thinking.