Pick n Pay: Changing its Environmental Footprint

Description

Pick n Pay: Changing its Environmental Footprint: Abstract

Pick n Pay: Changing its Environmental Footprint is a case study by John Luiz and Karen Alsfine.

Pick n Pay’s initial steps to address environmental issues in the 1980s culminated in 2007 with the launch of its Sustainable Development Vision and Action Plan. The plan commits the organisation to reducing its overall carbon footprint and specifically it’s energy consumption by 20% per square metre of trading space by 2012 (based on 2007 baseline figures). At the same time, however, the company intends to increase its trading footprint by 12% a year over the same period. The biggest challenge for Tessa Chamberlain, general manager for sustainable development at Pick n Pay, lies in the conundrum of balancing these two goals. Can Pick n Pay achieve both, or will achieving one goal necessarily compromise the other?

Teaching objectives

To generate discussion and learning about sustainable business strategies, specifically as they relate to the environment.