Having ascertained that plastic reduction was a focus area for the organisation’s customer base, I set about creating a reduction plan by product category. Our initial target was to make a 6% reduction against a baseline year of 2018, which was increased after 2 years to 15%. This Blog discusses this second phase, targeting a 15% reduction in plastic footprint by the end of 2022. A key point requiring definition was whether to aim for an absolute decrease in plastics, or a reduction relative to market share. Should the organisation successfully increase its market share, single digit plastic reductions could be negated by the fact that the firm would simply be retailing higher volumes of products. For this reason, a relative target to reduce plastic from 3,308 tonnes per 1% market share, to 2820 tonnes per 1% market share (assuming a market share constant of 6.1%) was chosen. This was a wise decision as the market share of the organisation increased considerably during the COVID lockdown period from 6.1% to 6.6% (an 8% increase in market share). An absolute target would have shown an increase in plastic use, but choosing a relative target meant the organisation reported a proportional decrease despite increased unit sales. This taught me that the unit of measure and calculation methodology can be just as important as the project actions when analysing non-financial quantitative data and horizon scanning against future targets.
The bulk of the empirical research focussed on product-level plastic reduction projects. A pipeline of potential reduction projects was identified and proposed to category managers, including Buyers, Product Developers and Technical Managers, and sometimes by them to me (an example of normative isomorphism). A programme of 41 individual projects was managed over the 2-year period with reductions characterised into 3 categories. Reduce projects (25% of the reduction or 685 tonnes) were those where plastic was still being used but the weight of a component had been lessened, including milk and water bottles, protein trays, and the Food to Go range. Remove projects (5% of the savings or 132 tonnes) involved the complete elimination of an unnecessary packaging component, such as plastic cutlery, easter egg fitments and overcaps on yoghurts and cream. Replace projects (70% of the total or 1834 tonnes) were those where a component was deemed to be necessary, but it was possible to substitute another material, which included replacing single use carrier bags and bags for life, baby wipes and teabags with compostable biomaterials. I worked with the relevant stakeholders as the technical subject matter expert and gathered evidence of these projects in an Excel spreadsheet, noting the number of components affected, total weight of plastic reduced on an annualised basis, and the period quarter in which the project was launched. Over the focal period, 718 million units were replaced, 684 million units were reduced, and 47 million units were removed. Whilst these projects contributed to a reduction in the organisation’s plastic footprint, it became clear that these incremental reductions are not going to break the symbiosis of single use plastics and convenience grocery. There is resistance from senior managers within the organisation to consider refill solutions, for example, as these are not considered core to the organisation’s strategy of Pure Convenience, would require space in store, increased colleague hours, and are not compatible with the ‘top-up shop’ approach.
Understanding the total plastic footprint during the project was a challenge. Whilst individual reduction projects can be quantified in weight and units, they only quantify the plastic reductions, but do not take into account any increases. Managers may also choose to increase plastic in certain products but would be unwilling to communicate this. Historically a third-party data provider has been used to calculate plastic footprint annually. To ensure accuracy of data in calculating total plastic footprint at a given time during the year, I also project managed an information technology project concurrently with the apprenticeship to create a multi-sided platform that multiplies quantitative data from one system (importing product sales) by qualitative data from another system (importing packaging specifications) to give a true real-time reflection of the organisation’s plastic footprint within a specified timeframe in dashboard format. This system will allow the organisation to automate daily reporting that previously took months to complete in spreadsheets, gave a snapshot in time that was only conducted annually, and incorporated the risk of human errors. This taught me the value of Big Data and platform ecosystem strategy in non-financial CSR reporting.
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