According to a global study released by Synovate, some six in 10 grocery shoppers across 10 international markets, including the U.S., would go out of their way to shop “green.” This drive-to-green trend is being led by 86% of Russian respondents and 85% of Malaysians. Interestingly, Dutch consumers weren’t that interested in “green” retail trends because environmentally friendly products and policies (e.g. fewer plastic bags) have been in place for ten to twenty years in small stores and around five years in chain stores in the Netherlands.

Also, across the 10 markets surveyed, 79% of respondents found the idea of recycling facilities in supermarkets and grocery stores interesting. Ninety percent in Brazil agreed it was a good idea, followed by 89% in Serbia, and 88% in Malaysia.

As U.S. supermarket operators continue to look at how sustainability fits into their business models, there are a number of ways to go “green” – whether it’s through asking shoppers to reuse or recycle their plastic bags, reducing energy costs through changes in lighting fixtures and properly loading refrigerated cases to maximize airflow in and on product, or through working with supply chain partners on new packaging or buy local campaigns.

If you’ve undertaken sustainability in your business and have a success story to share, please let us know. We’re always looking for new sustainability success stories for the PMA Web site.

Tags: Sustainability

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Global Trade, Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.