Dragon breathes life into Sainsbury report

J SAINSBURY has published the first stand-alone environmental report by a UK supermarket chain. Design is by Dragon International.

The retailer’s report comes as a Department of the Environment working party meets to discuss how to encourage companies to incorporate environmental information into the main body of their annual reports.

The working group for the Advisory Committee for Business and the Environment was set up to form guidelines on environmental reporting.

“The DoE supports environmental reporting and is trying to get it included in the main body rather than as a separate document, because it’s easier to keep hold of,” says a department spokesman. A stand-alone document “would impose a significant burden on smaller companies”, he adds.

However, Dragon creative director Greg Vallance believes that environmental information should be presented separately: “There are separate issues to be covered,” he says.

Vallance predicts other supermarkets will follow J Sainsbury’s lead, “because of the corporate conscience. And it can be turned into a very positive PR tool”.

The Sainsbury report discloses that the retailer is discontinuing some of its Green household cleaners which no longer have environmental advantages over standard products.