ASDA's Sustainability Impact and Policies/Initiatives

This article discusses ASDA's sustainable development programs and initiatives towards community, food waste, energy conservation, packaging, and more. It also compares ASDA's sustainability programs with other retailers in the UK.

ASDA’s Sustainability
Impacts and
Policies/Initiatives
RUNNING HAED: ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 0

ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 1
Table of Content
1. Introduction........................................................................................................................2
1.1. About Asda..................................................................................................................2
1.2. Corporate Social Responsibility..................................................................................2
1.3. Sustainable Development............................................................................................2
2. Asda’s Sustainable Development.......................................................................................3
2.1. Asda’s Community Programs......................................................................................3
2.2. Asda’ Food Waste Initiative........................................................................................4
2.2.1. Love Food Hate Waste Initiative.........................................................................4
2.2.2. Reduction in-store food waste..............................................................................4
2.2.3. Asda Selling mis-shaped/wonky Vegetables and Fruits......................................5
2.2.4. Food Product Donations.......................................................................................5
2.3. Energy Conservation...................................................................................................5
2.4. Packaging....................................................................................................................7
2.5. Asda’s Transportation Initiative..................................................................................8
2.6. Water Conservation.....................................................................................................9
3. Asda’s Sustainability Programs vs. Sustainability of other retailers in the United
Kingdom...................................................................................................................................10
3.1. Initiative towards recycling of Plastic Bags and Packaging Material.......................10
3.2. Sale of Wonky Vegetables........................................................................................10
3.3. Adoption of Renewable Energy................................................................................10
4. Conclusion........................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12

ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 2
1. Introduction
1.1. About Asda
Asda Store's Limited is a British retailer having its headquarters in Leeds, West Yorkshire,
U.K. The company was incorporated in 1949 and currently is a third largest chain of
supermarkets in the United Kingdom after Tesco and Sainsbury's. According to its 2018
Annual Report, Asda has supermarkets in 642 locations (Asda, 2018).
Asda Store's Limited is currently a subsidiary of Walmart post a takeover in 1999 worth £ 6.7
billion takeovers, but unlike most of the other subsidiaries of the Walmart Group, the Asda
Store's Limited has much greater autonomy and has retained its British management post the
takeover (Asda.com, 2018).
1.2. Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR can be defined as the business model operation of
self-regulation wherein a business or a corporation works towards being socially accountable
towards its business, its vast array of stakeholders, the industry it is operating in and towards
the society as a whole. Corporate Social Responsibility involves the business operating in
such manner when it consciously analyses the impact of its operations concerning the
economic impact, social impact and environmental or ecological of the various aspects of its
operations (Schwartz, 2017).
1.3. Sustainable Development
Sustainable development can be defined as a business principle of ensuring meeting business
development and growth objectives for the present while ensuring that the future
requirements of the future generations are not hampered. Sustainable development involves
ensuring developments which preserving and protecting natural resources, ecosystems, etc.
on which the society and economy are dependent upon (Carley and Christie, 2017).

ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 3
2. Asda’s Sustainable Development
Asda Stores Limited is a firm believer of sustainable development and believes in growing its
business which sustaining the environment and reducing the environmental impact its
operations can have. Asda further believes that its sustainable development programs have
enabled it to reduce its operations cost, build closer relations with its customers, vendors, and
suppliers, and other stakeholders and the company intends to continue its sustainable
development initiatives in the future (Asda.com, 2018).
Asda has various sustainable development programs while working towards the communities,
working with its suppliers, food waste management program, energy efficiency initiatives,
carrier bags programs, Asda's initiatives for working towards climate change and climate
resilience, etc. (Asda.com, 2018).
2.1. Asda’s Community Programs
Asda believes that the communities where the company operates its stores are the cornerstone
of its growth and success and due to its various community programs of Asda, the company
has been awarded by the Retailer Industry Awards as the ‘Community Retailer of the year in
2013, 2014 and 2015' (Asda.com, 2018).
In 2011, Asda set up the Asda Community which aims towards contributing to the
communities it works with by offering better working life and employment prospects to the
young people they work with, contributing to the local communities, ensuring a healthier
living with improved health initiatives and its green initiatives for ensuring a cleaner and
safer environment. (Asda.com, 2018)
Asda also supports six charities through its stores. These charities include
 Tickle Pink, which is a breast cancer initiative which supports breast cancer charities
like Breast Cancer Now and Breast Cancer Care. The Tickle Pink completed its 2-
decades since inception in 2016, and it has raised about £50 million with its
partnership with Asda (Parry, 2018).
 Tommy’s, which is a research fund researching issues about pregnancy and birth.
 Children in Need.
 Everyman.
 Fields in Trust – A charity which aims to protect open spaces for outdoor recreation
().

ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 4
 Asda Foundation – Has undertaken various in-store fundraising and supported social
causes and initiatives of its employees (Asda.com, 2018).
2.2. Asda’ Food Waste Initiative
Asda, as a company, values the importance of food and has undertaken a wide array of
initiatives towards reducing the wastage of food and food products within its operations.
Some of its food waste initiatives include
2.2.1. Love Food Hate Waste Initiative
Asda has been continuously educating its customers towards a wide array of advantages of
reducing wastage of food and food products. Some of its initiatives include
 Informing consumers that they can save up to £ 60 per month by reducing wastage of
food and food products (Welsh, 2018).
 Providing customers with recipes for preparing dishes using food leftovers.
 In-store demonstrations are providing customers tips towards using leftovers and
reducing food wastage.
2.2.2. Reduction in-store food waste
Asda has implemented a wide array of schemes and initiatives towards the reduction of in-
store wastage of food and food products. Some of its initiatives include.
 A date with dates program, which reviews the sales patterns of products within its
stores and using analytics, ensure making the adequate quantity of product in the store
which ensures timely availability of the product in its store which reducing excess
stocking and wastage.
 The fresh and Tasty program, which ensures review of packaging across product lines
ensuring fresh food is available in store. On the day of use by, its prices are reduced
to encourage its sales and avoid the food product going to waste (Stickings, 2017).
 Weather Watch Initiative, wherein Asda monitors the weather as the weather plays a
vital role in influencing the food consumption behavior of the consumers and
accordingly stock and shelf products accordingly.
 The Loving Labels Initiative, ensuring a clear label on its products.

ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 5
2.2.3. Asda Selling mis-shaped/wonky Vegetables and Fruits
In order to reduce food wastage, in February 2016, Asda decided to sell mis-shaped or wonky
vegetables and fruits. Asda started selling fresh produce such as potatoes, carrots, cabbage,
leeks, onions which are mis-shaped at a 30% discount. These vegetable were a part of Asda’s
Beautiful from the inside range (Maxwell, 2015).
This initiative has to be so successful, that it was being rolled out to all its stores
2.2.4. Food Product Donations
In June 2013, Asda partnered with FareShare to ensure its excess edible stock is donated to
charitable causes instead of going to waste. This partnership redistributes delicious fresh
produce to various charities and community projects within the United Kingdom and so far
have managed to donate 3.1 million meals to over 2000 charities using its unique partnership
with FareShare (Quinn, 2018).
2.3. Energy Conservation
Asda Stores Limited Understand the importance of energy conservation and continually
strives towards improving its energy consumption across all its stores. Asda has invested
millions of pounds towards ensuring efficient use of energy, implementation of green energy
programs, etc.
Some of the initiatives of Asda Stores limited undertaken towards energy conservation are
listed below.
 Asda has reduced its energy consumption by almost 30% as compared to in 2010. The
energy consumption is calculated by kWh per sq. Feet.
 In its Norwich Hall Road Store, Asda has installed the significant amount of solar
panels on them, and air source heat pumps to provide heating, hot water, and lighting
within the store. These investments ensure that almost 18% of the store's energy
requirements are being met by renewable sources (Bryla, 2015).
 In its Rochdale depot, Asda has included a wide array of low carbon footprint
technologies which include installation of solar panels for providing heat and
electricity, rainwater harvesting, using high-efficiency refrigeration requiring low

ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 6
electricity consumption. These investments have translated into 26% lower carbon
emissions, 30% reduction in water usage, and an increase in energy efficiency by
28%.
 In 2011, Asda had installed charging points for electric cars in their car parks to
encourage customers towards adopting greener and a cheaper alternative to vehicles
powered by fossil fuels. So far, Asda has installed 170 charging points in over 100
store locations.
 Being a part of the Walmart Family, Asda has goals towards 100% electricity
generation from renewable sources, towards which it has already set a target of
obtaining 30% of its electricity needs from renewable sources. Asda has made a
substantial investment of millions of pounds towards the installation of solar panels
on the rooftops of its various stores and wishes to continue the same towards reaching
a target of being self-sufficient towards its energy needs and generating 100%
electricity generation from renewable sources (Tan and Chintakanada, 2016).
 The Asda group has further invested in millions of pounds towards replacement and
procurement of energy efficient LED lighting, the voltage stabilizing systems, energy
efficient appliances such as fridges, freezers, over, etc. Asda has also further invested
in altering its store layout to make it much more energy efficient by allowing
maximum natural lighting and ventilation and adopting heating optimization
techniques.
 In 2014, Asda installed a large-scale solar panel project on the rooftop of its Leicester
store which comprised of installation over 900 solar panels. This project has enabled
Asda to reduce its carbon footprint while generating almost 200,000 kWh energy per
annum for its internal consumption (Bendell, 2017).
 Asda has its own dedicated Energy Bureau whose function is to monitor, manage and
maintain energy and its usage across Asda Stores. Asda has installed over 100,000
sub-meters towards analyzing the energy usage and consumption across all its stores
which have enabled Asda to fix malfunctioning devices, energy inefficiencies within
its stores, and work towards development and implementation of innovative solutions.
 Asda has invested millions of pounds in installing new Mistral refrigeration system
across many of its stores. These new refrigeration systems use coils and fans installed
in the roof of the stores to use the outside cold air to cool its fridges and freezers using
a series of ducts and complicated systems. This new system has helped Asda save

ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 7
15% in electrical consumption, and this system also requires lower usage of
refrigerant in the system.
2.4. Packaging
The packaging material is essential for the sale of products in a retail store but more than
often, these packaging material are thrown away and reach the landfills. Packaging materials
are significant contributors to waste and pollution (Sen, 2017).
Asda is committed to adopting recyclable packaging material by 2025 which is in line with
Walmart's 2025 Sustainability target. Some of the initiatives adopted by Asda in the
recyclable material in its products are as given below.
 In 2015, Asda moved all its vinegar product packaging to plastic bottles from glass
bottles and containers. This has enabled reduction of packaging weight by 250 MT
which has also translated into reduced transportation cost or reduction in emissions
from transportation.
 In 2013, Asda changed in meat packaging from the ‘Chosen By You’ and ‘Butchers
Selection’ meat to a completely brand new ‘skin’ packaging which has reduced the
amount of packaging material required but has also increased the shelf life of its meat
products by double (Chkanikova and Mont, 2015).
 In 2014, Asda introduced resealable packaging for its cheese products. It innovative
change has enabled consumers to close the packaging easily and ensures keeping the
cheese products fresh for a longer duration of time.
 Since 2008, Asda has installed recycling bins in all its stores wherein customers can
return and deposit its plastic carrier bags and plastic films and packaging material,
towards being recycling and reuse of plastic packaging material. This initiative from
Asda has ensured millions of tons of plastic are recycled, reused and do not reach the
landfill.

ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 8
2.5. Asda’s Transportation Initiative
An active Transportation network is one of the most vital elements of any retailers value
chain or supply chain network. However, at the same time, the transportation industry is also
a significant contributor to emission and contributor to global warming (Chai et al., 2017).
Asda releases the importance of the transportation industry and its implications on the
environment and at this moment has undertaken several initiatives towards the reduction of
emissions from its transportation options. Some of its initiatives include.
 Introduction of double-deck trucks/trailers under its ‘Fewer Cheaper Miles' campaign
and introduced ten double-decker trailers in 2014. These ten trailers saved around
2000 journeys and 210,000 miles only within the first year of its induction.
 Drivers on Asda’s transportation operations are provided with adequate training
programs towards adopting driving styles which results in fuel efficiency and reduces
emissions. Also, with the introduction of intelligent driver style technology, Asda’
logistics departments can monitor and address issues to ensure efficiency in its
transportation operations (Jones et al., 2016).
 Introduction of evolution trucks within the transportation operations of Asda has
improved the fuel economy within its network by 3-6% due to its aerodynamic
design, engine management systems, imposing of speed restrictions, etc.
 Utilizing the same vehicle for multiple uses has also allowed Asda to improve its
transportation cost, reduce emission levels. For instance, the same truck can be used
to pick-up stock or produce from one location to pick up another material from near
the drop location to utilize better fuel efficiency, emission levels, etc (Jones et al.,
2005).
 In 2014, Asda introduced 50 numbers dual fuel vehicles within its transportation fleet.
This can result in substantial cost savings for the company due to a reduction in fuel
consumption and also has aided in the reduction of emission levels.

ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 9
2.6. Water Conservation
Water is a scared resource in many parts of the world. Even though the United Kingdom
receives adequate rainfall, Asda realizes the importance of water conservation and aims to
reduce its water consumption by 2020.
Asda has invested millions of pounds towards the reduction of water usage in its depots and
stores. Asda has undertaken the following initiatives towards achieving its water conservation
goals.
 Asda has focused on fixing leaks and ensure all systems are working correctly. For
instance, when the water consumption at its Glasshoughton petrol filling station
increased from 0.4m3 to 12m3m, it was found out that the increased in water
consumption was on account leakages in pipes which are attended and rectified
immediately upon detection. Similarly, a leak in the supply pipe at the Cottonwood
Living Store was resulting in a loss of 26 liters of water per hour. This leakage was
identified, investigate and fixed due to Asda’s effective monitoring systems (Jones et
al, 2016).
 Asda has also implemented water harvesting and water conservation programs in
many of its stores across the UK and has plans of replicating the success of its water
harvesting and water conservation programs across all its stores.

ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 10
3. Asda’s Sustainability Programs vs. Sustainability of other retailers in the United
Kingdom
Asda, along with many other retailers in the United Kingdom are committed towards
sustainable development and have implemented various initiatives towards ensuring the
contribution of the retail industry towards sustainable development.
3.1. Initiative towards recycling of Plastic Bags and Packaging Material
Similar to the Asda installing collection bins in its stores towards the collection of plastic
bags and plastic packaging material for recycling and reuse purpose, many players such as
Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidl, etc. Moreover, also have similar initiatives wherein the
customers are encouraged to return or deposit plastic bags and packaging material for
recycling or reuse, return plastic bags to the store in return for additional loyalty points etc.
(Elder et al., 2014). For example, Tesco encourages its customers to reuse plastic carrier bags
and awards additional reward points under its loyalty programs to its customers who bring in
their bags for shopping and assist in the reduction of plastic bag consumption. Tesco also
encourages its delivery staff to collect plastics bags from their customers at the time of
delivery of the products (Tesco.com, 2018).
3.2. Sale of Wonky Vegetables
Similar to the Asda introducing the sale of wonky or misshaped vegetables, fruits, and other
produce, may other major retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidl, etc. And they have
introduced similar initiatives wherein each retailer has dedicated a separate section for sale of
this wonky produce which is sold at a discount on 15-35%, which may vary upon the store
location, time of the year, season, etc (Young et al, 2018). For instance, Lidl has dedicated a
separate section to sell wonky vegetables in its stores and this produce as often a 5kg
different box of wonky vegetables are marked down as low as £ 1.5 per box (Munbodh,
2018).
3.3. Adoption of Renewable Energy
Similar to Asda's goals of implementing and increasing the usage of renewable energy within
its operations, many retailers in the UK such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Lidl etc. have

ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 11
introduced installation of solar panels on the rooftop of their stores for heating, lighting and
generation of electricity (Otsuki, 2014).
For instance, the largest retailer in the United Kingdom, Tesco, has committed to switching to
100% renewable energy by 2030 in its UK and global operations (Johnston, 2017).
4. Conclusion
Sustainable development is essential for ensuring that the future generations are not devoid of
the natural resources due to rampant exploitation of the same. Sustainable development
ensures that the environment and natural resources are protected and utilized in a sustainable
manner which does not hamper the economic growth.
Asda has realized the importance of sustainable development and has initiated a wide array of
sustainable development towards ensuring utilization of renewable energy, reducing water
consumption and wastage, decreasing the impact of emissions from various operations such
as transportation operations, in-store operations, etc. Asda has further contributed to the
society and raised funds for various charities and causes in line with its belief of giving back
to the society etc. The sustainable development initiatives have not only reduced the
company's carbon footprint and emission levels etc. it has also contributed in saving cost in
the form of electricity cost, fuel cost in its transportation operations, reduction In water cost,
increased revenue from the sale of wonky vegetables, etc.
Sustainable development is not only beneficial for the environment but also the for the
company regarding financial benefits.

ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 12
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ASDA’S Sustainability Impact and Politics/Initiatives 13
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