SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY

Here at Melbourne Central, we’ve committed to making positive changes, in order to minimise our impact on the environment. We’re happy that many of our retailers are also joining us on the road to continuous improvement with their sustainability practices and commitment to environmental responsibility.

Here are some highlights from a few of our retailers who have made a commitment to environmental responsibility and sustainability, and have made significant inroads in this area.

 

LUSH

Ever been into a LUSH store and wondered, ‘Why are all the products so naked?’.

Over 40 percent of LUSH products come ‘naked’ (without packaging), including the top 10 bestselling products. When customers take them home, they are placed in recyclable paper bags, which drastically reduces the packaging and plastic usage.

Since LUSH began, it has had environmental and sustainable initiatives at its very foundation. And the more the business grows, the more sustainable it is committed to becoming, by using its buying power to drive positive change.

Did you know that LUSH invented the first-ever solid shampoo bar?
This initiative alone has saved nearly 6 million plastic bottles going to landfill!

Here are some of the key sustainability initiatives at LUSH:

Packaging
In the product design process, LUSH plans for little or no packaging – and when packaging is unavoidable, it prefers to use recycled materials which can be recycled or composted.

Raw materials
Ingredients are selected with a preference for those that are produced in a sustainable way, and the suppliers are chosen with consideration to whether they respect the environment, and the animals and people living there.

Waste and Recycling

• Lush packaging is about 89% recycled (including paper bags, aluminium tins, gift wrap, ribbons, boxes, tags and inserts). 
• Pots and bottles are made with 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic, saving about 65 tons of carbon dioxide and 90 tonnes of virgin plastic per year.
• Carrier bags are made with 100% post-consumer recycled paper, saving 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. 

Check out the other environmental achievements by LUSH on its website and drop into our LUSH store and grab a naked product for yourself!
 
 

COUNTRY ROAD

Aussie fashion retailer Country Road is committed sustainable farming and ethical sourcing of raw materials.

It has taken measures to increase energy efficiency, include installing LED light fittings in all new and refurbished stores, using timers on shopfront lights and sensors in back areas, using only cold water in most stores and timers on hot water systems in large stores, and encouraging employees to take public transport to work.

Did you know you can get a $10 voucher for donating your old Country Road clothes?
Country Road has partnered with the Australian Red Cross on Fashion Trade - a unique clothing exchange program that rewards customers with a $10 discount voucher for donating pre-owned Country Road clothing to the Red Cross and saving clothing from going to landfill.

Find out more by visiting the Country Road store’s website or come in-store to Country Road
 
 

THE COTTON ON GROUP (Cotton On, Cotton On Body, Cotton On Kids, Typo, Rubi, Supre and Factorie)

The Cotton On Group aims to minimise its environmental impact and make continuous improvements to its sustainability practices for the future of our planet.

Some of the initiatives in place to create a better world include identifying more efficient uses of water, energy, transport and packaging, focussing on reducing, reusing and recycling throughout its stores and office locations, and empowering its employees to be advocates for minimising its environmental footprint.

Did you know that Factorie stores have started using cardboard coat hangers?
Each of The Cotton On Group stores retain and reuse their own plastic hangers whilst Factorie stores have rolled out the use of cardboard hangers. All stores also use biodegradable plastic bags to reduce the impact on landfill.

Better Cotton Initiative
In 2016, Cotton On Group became one of the first Australian retailers to join the Better Cotton Initiative. By sourcing ethically and sustainably grown cotton it ensures traceability throughout its entire supply chain, right down to the raw materials. Its short-term goal is to have thirty per cent more sustainable cotton by 2019.
 
Sustainability in Cotton On Group Stores
The Cotton On Group is on a continuous road to improvement throughout its stores to reduce its environmental footprint and improve operational efficiencies. All Cotton On Group stores have recycling practices and any unsold product is returned to its Distribution Centres for discount sale or given to charity organisations.

Find out more about the Cotton On Group’s sustainable practices here and don't forget to visit a Cotton On store here at Melbourne Central.

 

BOOST JUICE

Fresh juice and smoothie bar Boost Juice is not only into healthy people, but it’s also into a healthy environment too. Boost is continuously researching how it can reduce its environmental footprint, and its cups play an important role in this.

After much research about the environmental impact, its current paper cups were selected as they are manufactured using a renewable and sustainable resource, printed using non-toxic, food-safe inks, which are not harmful to the environment, and more than 98% of the paper component is biodegradable.

Boost recognises that the best method is actually minimising disposable cups, and so it offers Boost Enviro Cups in every store, and to encourage customers to purchase these it offers $1 off your Boost every time you bring it in for a refill!
In addition, Boost Juice has planted 100,000 tries to date with a commitment to plant over 10,000 trees per year.

Check out all the great initiatives Boost Juice have in place on their website, and don’t forget to buy an Enviro Cup next time you are at Boost!

 

THE BODY SHOP

As a pioneering business in the area of sustainability, it will be no surprise that The Body Shop has a solid commitment to supporting threatened areas of the planet.

The Body Shop has stated that by the year 2020, it has committed to:

• Regenerating 75 million square metres of habitat
• Developing 3 new sustainable packaging innovations
• Ensuring that 70% of its total product packaging doesn’t contain fossil fuels
• Powering 100% of its stores with renewable or carbon balanced energy.

Help support The Body Shop in its endeavours towards a more sustainable world by popping into their store, or visiting The Body Shop website for more information.
 
 

COLES

As a major supermarket, Coles is actively working to reduce waste and landfill through a variety of initiatives, like developing new and innovative recyclable packaging, and finding alternative uses for its waste.

Some examples of this include:

• Coles bottled water bottles are made from recycled plastic, saving 1.9 million kgs of plastic a year
• Plantic eco-plastic for packaging Coles Brand fresh beef, pork and lamb mince combines the use of renewable corn and recyclable plastic material to create a meat pack that is suitable to go in your recycling bin at home. It takes around half of the energy required to produce compared to traditional fossil fuel plastics, and is both renewable and recyclable. The Plantic meat trays are now being used for more than 50 million meat packs sold at Coles each year.
• Programs to recycle or divert food, cardboard and plastic resulted in converting more than 3000 tonnes of organic material to energy, and donating more than 7.8 million kilograms of food via its partnership with SecondBite and Foodbank.
• The REDcycle Program invites you to gather your empty bread, cereal and frozen food bags, plastic and reusable shopping bags and take them to your Coles store for recycling. The collected soft plastic material is then turned into outdoor furniture for Aussie primary schools and pre-schools. In 2016, Coles customers returned more than 299 tonnes of plastic to be recycled.

Check out other sustainability initiatives on the Coles website, and don’t forget to drop off your soft plastic bags at Coles.
 
 

WOOLWORTHS

Aussie supermarket Woolworths continually strives to innovate across its supply to chain in order to alleviate environmental pressures and mitigate climate change. It aims to use natural resources even more efficiently, and through innovation, collaboration and engagement, it has already achieved significant inroads, including:

• New and refurbished stores are 30% more energy efficient than stores opened in 2008.
• $2.3 million was invested in installing more than 4,000 rooftop solar panels across its stores around Australia.
• A focus on sustainable water consumption has led to rainwater replacing drinking water for gardens, toilets, cooling towers and truck washing at nine distribution centres.
• Moving towards a target of zero food waste to landfill, many diversion programs have been implemented, including food donation to farmers and food rescue charities like OzHarvest, FoodBank and SecondBite, as well as commercial food recycling and the new end-to-end stock-loss initiative ‘Fresher Faster’.
• New packaging for the Macro Organic brand has eliminated polystyrene trays and replaced them with compostable or recyclable trays, or simply a band around the product for identification purposes.
• Giving customers a way to recycle the soft plastic bags that packages many frozen products and bakery items (which cannot be recycled via Australia’s regular recycling program), Woolworths partners with the REDcycle recycling program to keep it out of landfill and dispose of it responsibly. REDcycle collects the plastic from dedicated bins at the front of 100 Woolworths' Supermarkets in Sydney and Melbourne and sends it to an Australian processor to make plastic park furniture. Since it began the partnership in 2015, it has disposed of 190 tonnes of plastic this way, equivalent to 47.6 million pieces of packaging! 

To find out more about the sustainable measures that Woolworths takes every day, visit the Woolworths website and make sure you bring in your soft plastic bags to recycle them!

 
 
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