A green agenda at Midcounties
Walsall based society, The Midcounties Co-operative, has pledged to reduce energy consumption by 20 per cent by 2010 and it is committed to being green across all its businesses from supermarkets to funeral care, travel agencies, pharmacies, motor dealerships and childcare nurseries.
The society, which has 346 businesses in the West Midlands, demonstrated an unprecedented reduction in CO² emissions last year to five tonnes per £1 million turnover, from 61.8 tonnes per £1 million turnover in 2006.
Throughout the past year, it has developed a far-reaching green agenda, overseen by an appointed energy and environment officer. Policies from local food sourcing to carbon offsetting, recycling, plastic carrier bag reduction and most recently, the installation of a renewable energy source, a wind turbine to power its Oxford head office and surrounding businesses, have all played significant parts.
A key achievement has been the appointment of 64 energy champions, an eco team of store managers who drive green initiatives at a store level.
The society’s energy and environment officer, Mike Pickering, explains: “Environmental awareness is not just about energy saving measures at a corporate level, but is as much about the day-to day practical steps which can be implemented from the bottom up.
“Our Energy Champions are in place to do just that – they drive awareness of green initiatives at a grass roots level and ensure colleagues are educated in ways to make the all important small steps from recycling to ensuring lights are switched off, which have a serious impact on the CO² emissions of our business.”
In 2008, the Society also launched a project to “Bin the Bin”, an enforced recycling policy put in place at its regional offices to get rid of more than 400 waste paper bins. Waste items are no longer binned but are now successfully recycled by more than 250 colleagues. Energy champions will be putting the initiative in place across all Midcounties’ divisions in 2009.
Plans are also afoot to work with local communities to reduce carrier bag usage in the Midcounties’ retail division. The scheme has been piloted in four trading locations; Church Stretton, Dorchester, Woodford Halse and Byfield, and has already saved 36 tonnes of plastic.
The society also follows an extensive carbon offsetting programme to offset the 1,000,000 business miles accumulated by colleagues each year. Working with The Carbon Neutral Company to support two principle schemes – the construction of wind turbines in Tamil Nadu, India, and the capture of methane, in Rhine-Rhur, Germany – it has already displaced 432,000 tonnes of CO² in the past two years.
In addition, through a partnership with leading carbon neutral company, Climate Care, the society offers customers of its Walsall based travel business the opportunity to offset their flight’s carbon emissions. The same policy applies to customers purchasing vehicles from its Motorworld business.
Most recently, the Midcounties has launched an eco-drive aimed at school children. Peter Penguin, a six foot cuddly bird, will tour schools across the region in 2009, teaching about the importance of looking after the planet using the ‘three Rs’ principle; Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Launched in Gloucestershire in January, Peter Penguin has already proved hugely successful with pupils and teachers, driving eco-awareness in an engaging, entertaining way.
Mike Pickering added: “The green agenda continues to lie at the heart of Midcounties’ aims and objectives and year on year we are building on our mission of operating as green a business as possible.
“Of course, there is still more work to be done and we will continue to look at ways to expand workable eco-initiatives across all areas of the society.
“Last year, our sustainability programme made a real step change which we will look to build on throughout the year ahead.”
