Sustainability

SUSTAINABILITY RETAILER OF THE YEAR

SPAR COYLTON

Retailers who ignore sustainability do so at their peril and, as Chris McCallum’s Spar Coylton store shows, doing good really is good for business.

For long enough ‘sustainability’ was just another industry buzzword that many retailers, as well as manufacturers, just paid lip service to – if they acknowledged it at all. However, as the recent COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow showed, it is now an issue that retailers ignore at their peril, with a growing number of savvy shoppers now actively seeking out sustainablyminded brands and stores.

No one understands this better than Ayrshire retailer Chris McCallum, our Sustainability Retailer of the Year, whose Spar Coylton store was hailed by the judges for its “admirable commitment to driving the vital sustainability agenda”. Spar Coylton was fully refitted recently, giving the store a vibrant and welcoming look and feel. Core to the refit was Chris’s commitment to enhancing his sustainability credentials and many aspects of the refit were driven by environmental motives, from installing energy efficient refrigeration and lighting throughout to adding reflective panels to the front door which help manage in-store temperatures. The judges said: “The refit was carried out with sustainability in mind and the result is a very energy efficient store with a much reduced carbon footprint.” SLR Publisher Antony Begley added: “Sustainability is an enormous issue for the local retailing sector and Chris McCallum is leading by example. “Building sustainability into the fabric of the building is a great way reduce emissions and, importantly, to cut costs. Doing good really is good for business – and Chris is proof of that.”