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Welcome to "nouveau monde", your "nouveau genre" (see, we even create new words) newsletter to better understand how to make the world better through the lens of retail. This is #45
Things move fast in retail and sustainability, we’re really happy to help you get the right tips and be inspired. Remember?!
Le menu du jour at nouveau monde is about some cream of the cream BS on ESG and Amazon getting clean clean on the matter.
If we don’t get 10,000 like on this episode, I don’t get it!
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Today's newsletter is 655 words, a 3-minutes read.
ESG WTF?!
by Phil
I decided to start again slow after 6 months of rest from the newsletter sharing a very interesting dossier I found from McKinsey which is to me one of the best consulting company I met in my career. It was unfortunately following a redundancy plan - those guys never come without a purpose - when we met first. The second time, I reckon they did an amazing job starting from almost nothing on a whole new business and putting the lines of profitability in a smart way. So guys, at least, follow their content.
Why ESG then?
You should see in detail the articles here.
I’ll give you a few lines, with my own comments.
1. ESG is not desirable, because it is a distraction
Having worked in the past as a CFO, I wonder how I would have dealt with this distraction. A company by essence is not profitable by itself. So being sustainable on the top…
2. ESG is not feasible because it is intrinsically too difficult
Sounds there is something that does not really balance here overall. So you better focus on the E, then the S, ensure I mixed well, then go the the G point.
3. ESG is not measurable, at least to any practicable degree'
Prove me it’s wrong. Everything can be measured, isn’t it?!
4. Even when ESG can be measured, there is no meaningful relationship with financial performance
See it can be measured !!! Now, what for…
Just a rehearsal. See you next week… or not…
Green (Day) Basket Case
by Anthony
Remember Amazon (and many other brands) pledge to be carbon neutral by 2040 ?
These two projects might not be the more effective ones but they have the advantage of being seen by customers. And, with really no claim of greenwashing, I'm pretty sure that in these kind of long range projects with ambitious targets, you need to do impactful things for sure, but also bring with you your workforce and your customers.
So, what are these two projects ? Interestingly, they both are connected to Amazon Fresh.
The first one is about plant based food and start with a simple algorithm :
If "The product is sold on Amazon ?"
Then
If "did Amazon launch its own private label with this product ?
Then
The product is becoming trendy
That's what just happened to a small range of plant based products that are now sold on Amazon Fresh, the new store format offered by Amazon in the US and in multiple cities across the world.
It might sound quite anecdotal but it really supports the idea of a shift in the consumer's behavior when Amazon enters the game.
So, what do they offer so far ? A variety of 15 products including patties (burger steaks), almond milk, "meatballs"... without meat, ...
We all know how Amazon works with this kind of products : they first start and test with a small range of products and if it works, it scales and offers the best 80% of what works. And, they have the data to know precisely what works, where, when....
We'll see if this works as, at least in the US, we've seen a small slowdown in the development of plant based food. Amazon has time...
Second project, related to real estate : Amazon Fresh opened its first "sustainable store" in Seattle earlier this month.
Let's have a look at what's green in this store. We'll, it seems that the most visible thing is the electric cars charging station in the parking lot, free !
But, the most interesting things are in the building itself :
refrigerants are a great source of GreenHouse Gas in a store, so Amazon replaced them by CO2 which is more natural and less emissive
Concrete on the floor looks like it is standard but it's made with recycled materials
Everything runs on electricity, even in the kitchen, and that electricity comes from another Amazon project and is completely renewable
Altogether, that unique store is set to reduce its footprint by 185 Tons on CO2, which may lead it to be the first net-zero carbon store ! We'll, if you just count for internal CO2 consomption, as the biggest part of a store's carbon footprint is... customers coming to do their grocery shopping...
They might have to put a lot of car charging stations and only allow electric cars to get to zero...
We'll follow that as it is nevertheless an interesting move !
Bonus track by Anthony
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