Case Studies GreenEdge sets Woolworths on its green path

In the late nineties GreenEdge (formerly Tyrrell Associates) was brought in by Woolworths as an environmental and communications consultant.

We first helped write an internal green newsletter, then went on to organise a "Towards Sustainable Retailing" workshop at head office.

This drew in enthusiastic staff - who got together to form a voluntary group. Members of this group became the internal 'champions' to generate wider staff interest and involvement.

We brought in 'The Natural Step' who provided sustainability awareness training to middle and senior management, and work-shopped practical applications of sustainability for products.

We helped Woolworths draft a corporate environmental policy, and produced a staff training and induction video, as well as an internal eco-info intranet site.

The voluntary group later become a formal Sustainability Forum - with a company director as chairman.

Woolworths published its first Sustainability section in their annual report in 2004.

They then went on to be named the Responsible Retailer of the Year in the 2008 World Retail Awards.

Social marketing to encourage recycling

In January 2008 we were commissioned by Waste Control, contractors to the City of Cape Town, to design and manage the public education and marketing component of the City's 'Think Twice' recycling collection programme in the far South Peninsula suburbs.

The brief was to encourage residents of Fish Hoek, Noordhoek, Kommetjie and Simon's Town to get into the recycling routine by separating their recyclable waste and putting it out each week for collection.

We used social marketing and other methods including public meetings, community media, adverts and news releases and a starter pack of "How To…" information.

The campaign has helped increase recycling participation rates to 80% - i.e. just over eight out of ten households are recycling. This is up with the best participation rates worldwide. Reporting on the success of the programme is regularly fed back to residents in update ads.

This is the third social marketing programme of its kind we have managed in recent years on behalf of the City of CapeTown and its contractors. We are fortunate to have built up special expertise in this area and are keen to share it with interested local authorities elsewhere, especially in light of the requirements of the new Waste Act.