Live from the main stage at RCC's Retail Sustainability conference in Toronto, my discussion with two visionary retail leaders, Geraldine Huse, President of P&G Canada, and George Soleas, President and CEO of LCBO, as they offer invaluable insights from their respective organization's journeys to net zero, spotlighting the innovations, cultural changes, triumphs and tribulations on their paths to real sustainable change.
Live from the main stage at RCC's Retail Sustainability conference in Toronto, my discussion with two visionary retail leaders, Geraldine Huse, President of P&G Canada, and George Soleas, President and CEO of LCBO, as they offer invaluable insights from their respective organization's journeys to net zero, spotlighting the innovations, cultural changes, triumphs and tribulations on their paths to real sustainable change.
About George
George Soleas is one of Canada’s best-credentialed wine experts. He joined the LCBO in 1997 as Director of Quality Assurance after serving more than 11 years in the Canadian wine industry, taking on progressively senior leadership positions until he was named President & Chief Executive Officer in 2016.
George’s diverse education includes a BSc from McMaster University, a diploma in Oenology from U.C. Davis, as well as a MSc and PhD from the University of Toronto. He remains committed to higher education through professional affiliations with McMaster University, Brock University, and the University of Guelph. George completed executive training through the New CEO Workshop at Harvard Business School, the Masters Certificate in Supply Chain and Logistics Management program from the Schulich Executive Education Centre, the Breakthrough Program for Senior Executives at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland, and the Rotman Institute of Corporate Directors program (ICD.D). His widely published research focuses primarily on the biochemical aspects of beverage alcohol constituents and their effects on humans.
George currently serves as a Member, Board of Directors of the Retail Council of Canada. He is also the recipient of such awards as the Ontario Imported Wine-Spirits-Beer Association’s Industry Partnership Award, the Greek Wine Industry Award, the McMaster Alumni Gallery Award, and was appointed to the Jurade de Saint Emilion and Chevaliers du Tastevin wine organizations as well as the Keepers of the Quaich.
About Geraldine
As President of P&G Canada, Geraldine is responsible for the Company’s business and operations of one of the Company’s Top 10 Focus Markets.She has oversight of almost 2000 employees across a manufacturing sitein Belleville, a distribution center in Brantford, and a general office located in Toronto.
Since joining P&G in 1986, her career has spanned across various Sales,Marketing and General Management positions including senior leadership roles across Europe, Asia, IMEA and America. Geraldine has led P&G Sales in UK & Ireland, followed by a position of Senior VP Global Sales with responsibility for a key customer account in 12 markets. Prior to joining P&G Canada, she was the CEO and Chairman of the Board for P&G Central Europe. During her career, Geraldine has championed Equality & Inclusion efforts by addressing the gender balance in leadership roles and promoting inclusive leadership as the unique way to succeed in the age of disruption. UK’s top trade magazine identified Geraldine as one of the top 100 influential women in business, Canadian Grocer named Geraldine a Star Women in Grocery in 2021, and WXN named Geraldine as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in 2022. Outside of work, Geraldine conducts an active lifestyle. Her passion is firstly family and then sports including running (covered 4 marathons in London, Edinburgh and Rome), theatre and restaurants.
About Michael
Michael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada and the Bank of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, Today's Shopping Choice and Pandora Jewellery.
Michael has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. ReThink Retail has added Michael to their prestigious Top Global Retail Influencers list for 2023 for the third year in a row.
Michael is also the president of Maven Media, producing a network of leading trade podcasts, including Canada's top retail industry podcast_,_ The Voice of Retail. He produces and co-hosts Remarkable Retail with best-selling author Steve Dennis, now ranked one of the top retail podcasts in the world.
Based in San Francisco, Global eCommerce Leaders podcast explores global cross-border issues and opportunities for eCommerce brands and retailers.
Last but not least, Michael is the producer and host of the "Last Request Barbeque" channel on YouTube, where he cooks meals to die for - and collaborates with top brands as a food and product influencer across North America.
Michael LeBlanc 00:05
Welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. My name is Michael LeBlanc, and I am your host. This podcast is produced in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
Live from the mainstage at RCC's Retail Sustainability Conference in Toronto, my discussion with two visionary retail leaders, Geraldine Huse, President of P&G, Canada and George Soleas, President and CEO of LCBO as they offer invaluable insights from their respective organizations journey to net zero, spotlighting the innovations, cultural changes, triumphs and tribulations on their path to real sustainable change.
Michael LeBlanc 00:38
This episode is brought to you by RCC's In Conversation with Retail Leaders Breakfast series, in depth conversations with Canada's top retail leaders explicitly geared for the retail supplier community.
If you are now or want to be a supplier to Metro, don't miss your chance to connect live in person with Pietro John Rolo, SVP of National Procurement at Metro Inc. and other Metro executives over breakfast this Wednesday, December 6, in Toronto. Visit retailcouncil.org to learn more and get your tickets today. That's Wednesday, December 6, in Toronto.
Now let's listen into my conversation with Geraldine and George.
Michael LeBlanc 01:17
All right, everybody, thank you. What a great start to the morning. Let's, let's keep the momentum. Geraldine, if you take that one chair over there, I'll take this one on the far right and we're recording this live for an episode of The Voice of Retail podcast so you can share this with your colleagues. So, let's hear the live excited audience. All right. All right, we're gonna keep like I said, we're gonna keep the momentum going.
Geraldine, we're gonna start with you and we're going to talk about our time together in three parts. One is a kind of a, establish what either-, both organizations are doing, we're going to then talk about how it incorporates into the business strategy and then we're gonna talk about advice, advice for the folks in the audience. So, let's start with, let's start with you, Procter & Gamble, ambition 2030, and let's talk about the four pillars, including net zero ambition 2040, take us through what-, what the organization is doing.
Geraldine Huse 02:12
Sure, so our ambition 2030, as well, we've laid out our targets for environmental sustainability, and we split it into four pillars. So, we have a climate pillar, a water pillar, a waste pillar, and the nature pillar and we've got specific activities against all, and specific targets. And on the climate pillar, as you rightly say, we're working towards net zero by 2040. So, by 2030, we've got interim goals that says we'll reduce our carbon emissions by 50% across our operations, by 40% across supply chain, and we've got different actions to get us there and then we need to do a lot more actions to get us to the net zero by 2040. So, we're on a journey and then similarly, in areas like waste, we have specific targets.
Geraldine Huse 03:00
So, we're committed to move all our packaging to 100% recyclable or reusable by 2030. You know, in line with what Galen was just talking about, we've committed to use 50% less virgin plastic and as we do that EPR, as we were just talking about, is a key part of that. So you know, we support, you know, effective waste management at scale and we need to develop the right infrastructure, so we can collect it, we can segregate it, we can treat it, and then we can make it reusable, and then we create the right and-, and market it, such that we can reduce the use of virgin plastic and we can recycle all that, but it really, it needs collaboration, as Galen was just saying to make that happen.
Michael LeBlanc 03:43
Yeah, and global collaboration is what-, we'll talk about that later in our discussion.
And George the spirit of sustainability, it's, it's more than environmental actions, it's a broad-based program, but if anyone is here from Ontario, you'd firsthand experience, some of the achievements and the objective. So, take us through from a new headquarters, the lightweight-, lightweight bottles to bags in the stores, a lot of activity.
George Soleas 04:07
A lot of activity and first of all, thank you for including us in this inaugural session of sustainability. Very important, an honor to be here.
So, sustainability is not new to the-, to the LCBO. As you know, we've been around for more than 95 years, I haven't, but we've been around for 95 years and in fact, since our inception, we've, we've always talked about social responsibility. So what we really did in 2018, is we took an inventory of everything that we do in terms of corporate social responsibility, what are we doing for the environment, and we created a social impact platform with, with a mission and really we wanted to make a bold commitment to support the social and environmental needs of the province to create more of a sustainable long-, Ontario and as you know, we do deliver $2.6 billion net dividend to the province of Ontario, which is about $55 million a week in net-, net dividend. So that's meaningful, but we-
Michael LeBlanc 05:13
Cheers to that. Cheers to that.
George Soleas 05:16
We really wanted to go beyond that and do more-, more-, more of a, contribute more meaningfully. So, we created what you called or what we call the spirit of sustainability, which is basically supported by three pillars and we decided to call it the good people, good planet, and good partnerships, and everybody's about what is the profit here and really, if you can get those three P's right, they add on to profit and yes, no sustainability program is sustainable if it's, if you're losing money, so that's, that's, that's exactly what we've done.
George Soleas 05:53
So, under the good people pillar, it's obviously the health and safety of our own people, engaging our own people and engaging customers, but also the mandate that we have in terms of moderation.
As you know, we're selling a product that can only be consumed in moderation. So, the other good pillar is the good planet and that speaks for itself. It's what are we doing as an organization to mitigate what we, the waste that we generate, how are we being more energy efficient and how are we diverting more of that waste from landfill sites and the third pillar, is the good partnerships and this is about celebrating the people and the partners that we work with, but also learning from them, and also influencing standards that they have and yes, we are not a global company, we're not a manufacturer, we're not a retailer, but the world is a shopping basket, we buy from more than 80 different countries from around the world, so we can influence what our suppliers are doing elsewhere around the world.
Michael LeBlanc 07:03
And to put some scale to that, historically, you're one of the largest buyers in the world of spirits and wine, right?
George Soleas 07:11
Yeah, we are, if not the largest, we are one of the largest purchasers, retailers and wholesalers of alcohol. So we feel that, that comes with a certain responsibility and obviously, that's also a lever for us to influence a lot of the things that are happening around the world from suppliers that we buy from and each one of these initiatives and goals that we have is measurable, it has clear objectives and we report on, so we have the sustainability impact report that we issue on yearly basis. In fact, it will be in our Food & Drink in the holiday season coming up soon.
George Soleas 07:50
So, you talked about some of the accomplishments so far and-
Michael LeBlanc 07:55
And paper bags.
George Soleas 07:56
Yeah, so we just talked about paper box, which I think is one of the smallest accomplishments because 10 years ago, we've-, were one of the first ones to eliminate paper bags and recently we just eliminated we made the announcement last April and September 1, we've eliminated completely any one-use paper bags from our stores. Now that's 108000-, saving 108000 trees, 2700 tons of waste diverted from landfill sites, and really 135 million paper bags that we were using on yearly basis, but another very important initiative that we started a few years ago which we're very proud of, is what is called today they Canada bottle.
George Soleas 08:40
So, we had some issues. You know, when-, when you have people in the warehouses, and in the retail stores slagging a 22-kilogram case, it's backbreaking. So, we looked for ways to reduce the glass weight of these bottles. A: because it saves the environment uses less energy, but it also helps our own people and in fact, we were able to reduce 82% of our lost time injuries in our warehouses in our retail stores and what we did is we did a lot of research worked very collaboratively with suppliers around the world including suppliers of glass, glass manufacturers, and we came up with a lightweight glass of 420 grams for any wine that we sell that is less than $18.95 in a 750 ml bottle. So today, we are able to reduce 6 million kilograms of glass on an annual basis because of that, and I mentioned before that because of our size, we can influence you know what today it's called the Canada bottle.
George Soleas 09:50
It is used globally. In fact, yesterday I was at a tasting of Napa Valley capsules, and one of the ladies that was put in said to me this is a $200 wine. It is a lightweight Glass. So, it's not just for the less than $18.95, which is 80% of the wines that we sell at the LCBO, but it's for everybody. So that's a huge achievement, in my opinion, in terms of reducing glass weight in terms of reducing waste energy, and also saving the backs of our people and reducing musculoskeletal injuries. Another-, another thing that we do is any store that we build today, or we renovate, or we relocate is either LEED certified or close to LEED certified. In fact, we just moved into a brand-new Head Office at Queens Quay and that is a LEED certified, Platinum certified building.
George Soleas 10:39
But one of the things that we're also very proud of, which is a huge secret, is the quality assurance that we have at the LCBO. It's a best in class, we are the only liquor jurisdiction in the world, that chemically tests and organoleptic-ly evaluates everything that we sell, and we do that because, A: we want to make sure that the products that you pick up from our shelves are authentic, they're safe, and you feel comfortable to drink those products. Any-, anything that you buy from us you consume, you put in your body, you want to make sure that it's safe, but what we've done there again, because of our size, is we were able to set standards that were more stringent than the maximum allowable limits of other regulators like putting put in [inaudible] regulations, etc.
George Soleas 11:27
So gradually working with our suppliers around the world, we were able to reduce those max-, those maximum allowable limits to almost zero. So today, 99.8% of the products that you buy from us are free of any contaminants and the other 0.2% meet those very stringent guidelines that we put in place. So, what does that mean, what it means is that all these suppliers, and grape growers and other crops that are used to produce alcohol are now either not using these pesticides, or they use them sustainably and that protects the environment, it protects the water supply, it protects the health and safety of their people and it's actually less money.
Michael LeBlanc 12:10
All of from a-
George Soleas 12:11
These are just some of the things that we're doing now.
Michael LeBlanc 12:13
All from an Ontario retailer, it's fantastic. Geraldine, when we talked about scope, I think of, of your organization, Procter and Gamble, global company, how many countries do you operate in?
Geraldine Huse 12:23
180
Michael LeBlanc 12:24
180. So how do you stitch together, the-, the overall project objectives with so many jurisdictions, so many countries, you know, as Galen Weston said, Canada may be advanced in some areas, and then how do you participate in that as, as the Canadian country lead, and what contribution do we make?
Geraldine Huse 12:43
So, we've made global targets, but then each country in each category has their own specific action plans to go towards those countries, so those global targets and what we've also realized is we don't need to just look at what we do in our own operations. So, you know, we've moved all our plants to zero waste to landfill, we can work on our own packaging to, to make everything recyclable and reusable, we can reduce water, we can reduce carbon emissions in our own operations, but actually, we have to look at the whole lifecycle of our product and that's what we do in each individual market. So, if I take, you know, Canada, if we take something like Tide, you know, when we look at the energy in producing Tide, and from producing it all the way through to usage most of the energy used is actually in the consumer's home. So, we can do a whole lot of work by working with consumers and if we can get them to wash in cold water instead of hot water, it reduces the energy usage by 90%. So, it's a massive positive impact on the environment, by doing that.
Michael LeBlanc 12:45
I still remember the days of buying Tide in a box that was about-.
Geraldine Huse 13:55
Certainly, compacting Tide, moving to liquid now moving to the pods is much more compacted. So, it uses a lot less material, a lot less carbon emissions, because you need-, you can put a lot more on the truck. So, for-, if I think about the cold water washing, hopefully you've all seen the communication from Tide on washing cold water because we've, you know, driven the technology, so it works just as well in cold water, and we've got 70% of Canadians now washing in cold water. So that saves on you know, energy bills, and it can save a consumer $150 a year.
Geraldine Huse 14:26
So, you know, things like that can make a massive impact. Similarly, on Cascade, the automatic dishwashing product, we realize that a lot of people won't run a dishwasher until the dishwasher is full, but actually if you run the dishwasher, even when it's half full, it uses only 25% of the water than you'd use if you hand washed it. So, you can save a huge amount of water by running a dishwasher even when it's half full and you can save energy because of all the hot water that comes out of the tap. So that can save 1000 metric tons of water by running dishwashers just on half full instead of always full and that can save on energy bills as well. So, you know, what we do is we do a lot of work along the whole supply chain, and how we can work together to reduce the environmental impact,
Geraldine Huse 15:15
Yeah, it's a great question. We talk a lot to consumers, and we know that in Canada, 90% of consumers want to live more sustainably. So that's a huge advantage versus some other markets, but we also know from talking to consumers that only 11% feel they do because they don't know how to.
Michael LeBlanc 15:15
Let's-, you know, P&G is very famous for being very customer focused, right to the point where you've got people living and opening up people's cupboards in their houses doing research and seeing what's going on. Talk about the reception of consumers, you mentioned, what is it, 70% have shifted to cold water, but you know, there's-, there's what consumers say and then what consumers actually do. So how do you-, how do you bridge those two things or how do you just, you understand how to bridge those two things in your overall objectives?
Michael LeBlanc 15:59
11% feel they do.
Geraldine Huse 16:01
Yeah, because they feel they don't know how to, they don't know what they need to do. So, things like educating consumers on cold water washing or running a dishwasher, when it's half full, you know that that's a quick and easy thing to educate them on, but what we've also learned is they don't actually want tradeoffs. So, they don't want something to be work less well, by making it sustainable. So, as we drive our innovation, we derive superiority in how the product performs in the state sustainable way, but without the tradeoffs and we find, as we keep working on that, we can find lots of ways that we can achieve both. Well, that's really what the consumer is looking for irresistible superiority that is sustainable, and not sustainability, but potentially a less performing product,
Michael LeBlanc 16:51
They're still looking for their kids’ clothes to be spotless after a rinse of Tide, right that-, that doesn't, that's not going to change. I want to shift the conversation a little bit to strategy and culture in your respective organizations. So, George, how do you inculcate, you know, the spirit of sustainability is obviously a very broad, you know, as you said, responsibility is kind of in the DNA of the LCBO. It's kind of the genesis of the organization, but when you sit down with your, your team, and craft strategy objectives for the business, how do you inculcate sustainability in that you've talked about reducing glass waste to affect, you know, make a better life for the employees, but-, but-, but how does it incorporate itself into how you make buying decisions, for example, how does that all come together?
George Soleas 17:37
Yeah. Look, as I said, before, we're-, we're through-, we're not a manufacturer or producer and we're not global, we do business with more than 80 different countries around the world and-, and we feel that we are the ones that face the customer. We are the ambassadors of all the suppliers, we’re the advocates of these suppliers. So, we want to make sure that we understand what sort of programs they have, what are they doing, that we can actually tell the customer that the product that we're selling for them, it is sustainable, it is ethical, it is what the customer is looking for. So, it is incredibly important for us to start to understand what the supplier is doing, and what-, what does the product stand for.
George Soleas 18:22
But at the same time, as you know, we are a retailer and a wholesaler. So, we are a supplier as supply chain also, so we have warehouses, we deal with freight forwarders, we deal with vessels, we deal with carriers, we have our own waste generation as well. So, we look at all of that, to make sure that we have initiatives that address the people and the planet, as I mentioned before, but it's not only about the people and the planet, it's also about the, the diversity within our industry as well. So that's something that we continue to forget that that's part of sustainability also. So, we do have initiatives that are-, and goals that are part of our strategic plan, that three-year strat plan, but a lot of these are all of these initiatives are actually threaded or linked to-, to strategy priorities. So, and all of that is-, has key performance indicators that are very clear and measurable with-, with timelines.
Michael LeBlanc 19:31
Geraldine let's talk about-, we talked a little bit about tradeoffs. So, let's talk about culture and I'm very curious as to how your organization is performance driven, you still have to put the numbers up on the board, globally, how you inculcate into the actual culture on a day-to-day basis here in Canada, here in Canada, globally. Let's talk about here in Canada. You've got decades of experience in this organization. How do you do that with your individual so that they're thinking, sustainability objectives in and amongst all their other many objectives that I'm sure they're accountable for?
Geraldine Huse 20:05
I think the first thing I'd say and Galen talked about kind of the cost of it sometimes, is in our culture, what we're saying is, it's not a choice, it's an imperative. So, the reality is if as a society we keep generating waste at the rate that we're generating waste, if we keep using raw materials at the rate we're using raw materials, we're going to need three planets by 2050 globally, and we're not going to have three planets by 2050.
Michael LeBlanc 20:31
It's kind of a false trade off.
Geraldine Huse 20:32
And so, we have to do it and P&G has been around for 180 years, we want to be around for another 180 years, so you know, we have to change things and you'll hear our CEO talking that message as well. So, it's an absolute imperative and it's built into, you know, what we do day to day, but we also look to make every individual accountable. So, we encourage people to think about what can you do and you know, in our opinion survey, we have a question that says, does what I do day to day help sustainability and we want everybody to answer yes because we want them to be thinking about it and we want it to be part of their work.
Geraldine Huse 21:10
So that's built into how we do, do work and we also encourage employees to come up with ideas. So, as well as you know, big ideas like changing our packaging, for example, on Gillette and Venus, we've just changed all our packaging from plastic to cardboard, which obviously makes an impact on Dawn, we've, we've moved to a concentrated version of Dawn. So now a bottle of Dawn will wash three times more dishes than a dilute bottle of washing up liquid. So, they're, they're kind of, you know, big initiatives if you like, but we also encourage individuals. So, you know, for example, at one of our plants, while we're making Dawn, we're looking at reducing water in the operations and he said, look, there is some wastewater that goes down the drain, and we've got a car wash next door. So why don't we siphon it to the carwash and so it's everyday examples, you know, like that, that make a difference.
Geraldine Huse 22:03
Another example is at our Gillette plant, when you're making disposable razors, the little plastic bits and you might think, well, how do you recycle or reuse that, and again, somebody at the plant said, look, I know of a company that's working on some craft designs, where they take all sorts of bits and bobs of, of waste and turn it into plant pots and coat hangers. So, these little bits that we're not sure how to recycle, let's give it to them, and they can use it. So, we encourage people to come up with these little ideas, as well as the, you know, mega ideas like, you know, at that plant, we moved all our energy to renewable energy, which is what we're doing in all our plants.
Geraldine Huse 22:23
So there's big ideas, but there's also small ideas, and by everybody having an accountability, you know, we encourage them to come forward and I'm proud to say our office here in Toronto, has just moved to zero waste to landfill because of a group of interns and new, new recruits at P&G, who said, look, we're recycling most of our things, but there's a proportion that still go into landfill, so we need to do something differently and they've come up with a project and so that our office is zero waste to landfill. So, it's very much built in and talked about, and we want people to take action.
Michael LeBlanc 23:11
Does it go as far as being part of the compensation for-, or-, for-, whether it's bonuses for great ideas, or is there a part of that that you see in the future, or even today that takes into people's compensation that they how they get paid, and what they get paid for that they keep their eye on sustainability goals?
Geraldine Huse 23:28
So we definitely have our global targets, which we're totally committed to, and we will make that happen and that-, and that ties into the overall results of the company and then it varies by every individual's work plan. They all have individual targets, some of them will include sustainability targets.
Michael LeBlanc 23:43
I suspect, a scientist, for example, that breakthrough making those pots. George let's talk about the, so many great things going on at the LCBO. Let's talk about, for a minute, a negative rather than a positive. So, you do many initiatives, perhaps one or two of them aren't successful? How do you take those in, I'm making an assumption there, but I have one in mind, how do you take those learnings in and if you have the experience of that and-,
George Soleas 24:10
What do you have in mind?
Michael LeBlanc 24:11
Well, I do think about boxed wine because I-, you know I-, you know being-, I love wine and for years I wouldn't you know, I didn't love cor-, I didn't love the corks going away and the screw caps going on and then you know, I see boxed wine is a, it's very efficient way to ship wine, but it's a little less impressive to put on the table with friends. So, talk about that a little bit.
George Soleas 24:34
Yeah, by the way, screw caps are actually working very well and in fact that today, the industry has-, has agglomerate corks that are-, that are not tainted.
Michael LeBlanc 24:44
Yeah, yeah.
George Soleas 24:45
That work very well also, but you're talking about boxed wine, and I don't think you're talking about the bag in a box, which is actually very successful. You're-, you're probably talking about tetra pack the smaller boxes, but one example that I was thinking of is actually Pat and Galen talked about PT before and we're always pushing, we're always pressuring our suppliers to come up with innovative solutions when it comes to, to packaging and one of the innovative solutions that they came up with was putting wine in PED bottles and it really didn't work out. People were not interested in buying wine in a PED bottle, they will buy spirits in a PED bottle, but not wine and as you know, wine is very sensitive to oxygen and other elements.
George Soleas 25:36
So, consumers felt that it wasn't the right package for them, but that's that was-, that was the problem. The opportunity was to come up with a lighter weight glass bottle. That's what really pushed us to look at alternatives to the PED bottle, the PED bottle was lighter, it was much easier to carry. It was it was less weight for-, for our people to carry in the warehouses as well as in, in retail. So that was an opportunity. Yes, there was a problem. It didn't work out, but we saw an opportunity and hence, we came up with what is called today they Canada Bottle.
Michael LeBlanc 26:12
Excellent. Geraldine let's talk about-, there must be a lot of projects happening both here in Canada and around the world. What do you-, what are you most excited about in this space, what-, what-, what gets you up and thinking about this topic, the most of what you see in front of you today or tomorrow?
Geraldine Huse 26:29
I mean, I think there's all sorts of things and I think the fact we're all here today, we're all excited about everything we can all do and we know that all of us as individuals can make an impact, we can all do things in our home in our day to day lives as employers as employees and in our business, I think the thing that really excites me is the opportunity for partnership and collaboration, because you can we can all together make much more progress and we're talking before about EPR and the waste management systems and something we're piloting here in Canada at the moment is a digital watermark on packaging. So, it's the, in the waste management processing, the packaging can be identified as to what it is.
Geraldine Huse 27:09
So that then more effectively segregates it and then if it's effectively segregated, it's easier to treat it and then turn it into reusable materials and then another example, as we've gone down that line is we found that some of the polypropylene that goes for recycling is not usable at the end, and particularly food containers. So, if you think about getting a curry from UberEATS, or chicken madras, the plastic sometimes ends up orange, you might have experienced this and even if you wash it, it's still orange and it's still got a fragrance to it and one of our scientists actually and you know, he's into cleaning. So, he should be an expert on this. He's-, he's-, he's engineered this non-toxic solvent that can clean even that kind of polypropylene waste plastic, and take the odor away from it, take the stain away from it, which makes it then reusable and that's what we're now sharing with the industry to use that across the industry.
Geraldine Huse 27:09
So, I think as you know, individual companies and individuals come up with things different companies do different things. When we collaborate together, you know, we can really make inroads and Galen mentioned, there isn't enough supply of recycled plastic to enable us to meet all the plastic needs that we have here in Canada. So, things like better segregation. So, more is recycled, things like this new toxic-, non-toxic solvent that can clean the polypropylene to make it reusable. You know, these things are really powerful. So, I think the more we all talk together, and collaborate and come up with new solutions. So that's what's getting me excited that we can really make some major progress.
Michael LeBlanc 28:47
Well, that's a great segue into the last section, our last couple of questions, which is advice, advice for the people in the room and the people listening to the episode. So, lots of retailers sitting in the room, when you day to day you, your-, you and your team collaborate with them, advice to the retailer sitting in the room when they're talking to your sales reps and your leaders?
Michael LeBlanc 29:06
A little follow on for that advice. There's lots of suppliers in the room, people who would want to talk to your organization about selling your services and goods and a fair amount of government folks in the room who understand and set policy advice to them.
Geraldine Huse 29:06
I mean, I think it all starts with a commitment to improving the environmental footprint we've all got, and then looking at what are the different things that we can do and don't worry about changing the world and fixing everything tomorrow because nobody can, but what are the different things you could do in the areas of climate, water, waste nature, which are the areas we're focused on them, you know, whatever the pillars are for you and however small like I mentioned, there's small examples as to how, you know, putting our wastewater to the local car wash, you know, all the little things help and out of little things, you know, big things grow and I think we'll just keep acting and keep talking. We can make, you know, massive progress, and I see it as a flywheel and we're starting to accelerate and I think Canada is a great market for that because there's a commitment from industry from government-, from consumers here. You know, you can see the progress coming and people want to make a difference and, you know, people want to know how we can help with that, but I would say just start and don't worry if it's small, just make progress.
Geraldine Huse 30:29
Yeah, let's keep talking. So, I talked to the minister just before we started, and we're talking about the EPR infrastructure, and what works and what could make it even better and, you know, we've got a list of things we think could make it even better. So let's just keep talking, because I think we've all got different areas of expertise and experiences and the more we talk together, the more progress we can make and same with retailers, you know, we've made lots of progress with many of our retailers and, you know, as we talk together, you know, we see little things and big things we can do differently, I mean, just things like trucks on the road.
Geraldine Huse 31:01
So like, if we deliver to a retail store, what we don't want is that truck to go empty, you know, it can then you know, go from, you know, our plant to a retail distribution center to a store and then on the way back, it can go via, you know, the distribution center, again, back to a store, but what's the most efficient way, if we look at the whole supply chain together, rather than just you know, from our plant to distribution center, then coming back empty, and then go about fall and then coming back empty, if you link in all the retail stores, we've made some massive savings in that area.
Michael LeBlanc 31:34
Fantastic. George last words to you, as the retailer on the stage advice to the folks in the-, in the room about suppliers’ vendors, working with the LCBO, and making sure you achieve your objectives together.
George Soleas 31:50
I agree with Geraldine. Sustainability is a journey, and you may not be able to do everything overnight, but you can at least start somewhere and in my opinion, it really needs to start from the top. You as a leader, if you're passionate about it, if you're authentic about it, you need to choose the right champions and the right advocates, the right ambassadors, and all of that message needs to be cascaded down to the entire organization. If-, if it's going-, if you're going to be successful as an organization in this area, it really needs to become a core value of the organization, it needs to become a way of life, no different than health and safety and everything you do, it needs to have a sustainability initiative or a threat and it has to be part of your strategic planning your strategic priorities. So yeah, first thing you do is really take an inventory of what you're doing today, because I bet you, you're doing a lot of things that you're not measuring and once you start measuring, you'll-, you'll be able to continue raising the bar for each one of those initiatives.
Michael LeBlanc 33:04
And you're gonna want to hear those things from your suppliers and vendors, right?
George Soleas 33:07
Absolutely, yeah and in terms of our suppliers, we do have a supplier Code of Conduct we've just renewed, we're very proud of it because it is what we stand for. It's on lc-, lcbo.com site, and it's something that we always tell suppliers to look at, and to ensure that they comply with those standards, because this is exactly what we stand for. Is that supplier Code of Conduct.
Michael LeBlanc 33:32
Fantastic. Great discussion. Geraldine and George, thanks so much for joining me on the stage and let's give a hand to our, our speakers and get ready for our next thing.
Michael LeBlanc 33:46
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of The Voice of Retail. If you haven't already, follow on your favorite podcast platform so new episodes will land automatically each week and be sure to check out my other retail industry media properties, the Remarkable Retail podcast with Steve Dennis, and the Global E-Commerce Leaders podcast.
I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, senior retail advisor, keynote speaker, Rethink Retail: 2023 Global Top Retail Influencer. If you want more content or to chat, follow me on LinkedIn.
Safe travels everyone!
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
talk, suppliers, sustainability, Geraldine, retail, LCBO, waste, reduce, Canada, put, initiatives, consumers, Galen, organization, global, recycle, bottle, plant, plastic, objectives