In October 2007, Sam’s Club became the first mass-market retailer in the U.S. to offer Fair Trade Certified™ bananas. As of December 31, 2009, our sale of these bananas has generated more than $900,000 to fund community development projects in Colombia while eliminating the need to use more than 875,000 gallons of herbicides. One of the farms we source from, the El Cortijo Farm, has used some of its Fair Trade premium funds to educate ninth and tenth graders from two local high schools about protecting the environment and to involve these youths in reforesting the banks of the Zungo River, which runs through their community and borders El Cortijo farm.
In 2009, ASDA became one of the first members of the Unilever-Greenpeace Sustainable Palm Oil Coalition. This coalition helps companies shift their sourcing of palm oil to sustainable sources. We have committed that by 2015 all palm oil used in our products in the U.K. will be from sustainable sources. We also support the Green Palm Trading Platform by purchasing certificates that support sustainable palm oil production for all of our café oils at ASDA.
In the U.S., our Textiles Sustainable Value Network (SVN) worked with many NGOs and industry experts to develop a toolkit to help apparel suppliers integrate sustainability and responsible sourcing practices into their everyday business. To date, we have produced Best Practices Guides for suppliers in cut and sew factories and dye houses, focusing on packaging, waste scrap reduction and recycling, energy and greenhouse gases, water use efficiency, and social and ethical practices. Supplier reactions to the guides have been extremely positive, and our hope is that they will serve as a catalyst for our suppliers to become even more sustainable.
