The greening of Britain's supermarkets shows no signs of letting up. Tomorrow, J Sainsbury, Britain's third biggest grocer will unveil what it describes as the biggest recycling initiative yet by a supermarket, the Financial Times reports.
Some 347 of Sainsbury's stores are to be equipped with new recycling units that will take normal household waste, plastics, clothes and other products and will be lit with solar power.
Tesco, Britain's biggest and most profitable supermarket, recently sought to burnish its green credentials by unveiling a £100m environmental fund that includes plans to power stores with wind turbines, solar panels and geothermal energy. The company also plans to boost its recycling facilities, and from September all its bags will be biodegradable.
All these initiatives reflect the desires of more socially-conscious consumers, who want their supermarkets - and other companies as well - to be environmentally responsible.
This explains booming sales of fairtrade coffee, prompting multinational companies such as Nestle to McDonalds to launch their own ranges of fairtrade products.
In that same spirit, Sainsbury's said in February that it would no longer sell skate and huss as they are endangered fish species. The company also said it would consider whether to continue selling other threatened stocks such as swordfish, marlin and Dover sole.
We can expect more green initiatives from supermarkets in the coming months. Right now they need all the friends they can get.
The £120bn sector, which is dominated by the big four - Tesco, Wal-Mart owned Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons - is to be investigated by the Competition Commission for the third time in seven years amid concerns about their increasing power in the local convenience store market and their bargaining power with suppliers.
There is also the matter of Robert Greenwald's film, Wal-Mart - the High Cost of Low Price, which has just opened in the UK. It alleges that the giant discount retailer has been responsible for mass closure of small shops. But Wal-Mart is not without its defenders. Dominic Lawson in the Independent argues that Wal-Mart has done more to raise living standards of poor Americans than any government agency.
