At Forum for the Future, we are constantly striving to find new ways of delivering more sustainable consumption for business – delivering value to stakeholders, but within environmental limits. Supermarkets and other major retailers have the ability to drive far-reaching change up and down their supply chains, supporting local economic development and helping suppliers operate in ways which have less impact on the environment and do more to benefit communities. They can also help hundreds of millions of customers to make straightforward, affordable and more sustainable choices – vital in the current economic climate.

The food and retail sector has been at the forefront in setting out bold sustainability plans over the past couple of years. Forum for the Future has played a part in many of these encouraging developments, but we believe that there is still a long way to go. We want to help companies across the whole retail sector – retailers, branded manufacturers, own-label producers and those further down the supply chain – to deliver on their promises and to play their part in building a sustainable, low-carbon economy.

Our recent retail sector work includes:

- What does leadership in sustainable retail look like?
Retail Leadership: What are the hallmarks of a sustainable retail business? offers a view of sustainability from the market to the shop floor, identifying the hallmarks of leader businesses and providing examples of best practice.

- Engaging consumers
Eco-promising – This report – published jointly with Business for Social Responsibility - provides an invaluable how-to guide and examples for companies wanting to make environmental claims about their products and services. 
Check-out carbon – We conducted independent research – sponsored by Lloyd’s Register – to explore the role for carbon labelling if the goal is a low-carbon shopping basket.

- Preparing for, and helping shape, the future of retail
Retail Futures 2022  - Together with some of our retail partners (Unilever and Tesco) we developed a set of future scenarios for the UK retail sector that encourages long-term thinking, challenges conventional wisdom and helps business, government and consumer groups set a course for a sustainable retail sector.
‘Ahead of the agenda’ seminars - supported by Tesco, Forum for the Future is running a series of seminars during 2008 and 2009 that examine emerging trends in sustainability that are likely to be crucial to the retail sector in coming years.

- Sustainable product assessment
We are working with a number of business partners on sustainable product assessment tools, as we believe this is a valuable way to help companies improve the sustainability of their buying practices and of their new product development process.

How we work with our partners in the retail sector

As well our broader sector work, we work with the leading companies across the sector to help them make sustainable choices available, attractive and affordable to their customers, through product and service innovation. We also create specific strategies that help our partners meet the challenge of sustainable development and deliver business success. We use a futures approach to understand how the industry might be affected by macro trends such as climate change, social inequality, changing demographics and rising obesity levels.

Our partners in the retail sector
Alliance Boots
Apetito
Cadbury
Cafedirect
The Co-operative
Finlays
John Lewis Partnership
Kingfisher
Kraft
Marks & Spencer
PepsiCo UK
Pret A Manger
Sainsbury
Scottish & Newcastle
Tesco
The Tetley Group
Unilever
Wm Morrison

Our members in the retail sector
Asda, Cargill, Duchy Original, IGD and Warburtons

More information
Please contact Dan Crossley at d.crossley@forumforthefuture.org

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