Wednesday 17 July 2013

Asda to create ‘affordable green products’ for consumers

Asda has joined forces with the University of Leeds in a bid to create more affordable and sustainable products for its customers across the UK.

They aim to establish what they claim will be the “largest ever study” solely focused on consumer attitudes towards sustainability and help find ways to help households save money at home through greener lifestyles.

Asda already has a 7,500 customer panel called "Everyday Experts" that uses customer insight to develop greener and more affordable products. But the new two-and-a-half year project aims to work more closely with the panel to identify how to best promote sustainable products and behaviours and accelerate the development of green products.

A researcher from the University of Leeds will lead the study and help with new product development as well as examine large-scale shifts in customer behaviour.

Paul Kelly, Asda’s External Affairs Director said: “Over the past two years we've already committed to passing on £800m of savings to our customers through our sustainability initiatives by 2020.

"We’ve joined with University of Leeds in a UK first to help change attitudes to sustainability and to bring new, improved and affordable sustainable products to the shelf edge. Not only does this make sense for retail as a whole; it makes sense for customers and will continue to save them money in the long term.”

Asda’s US owner Walmart has also committed to a series of sustainable initiatives, including eight new PV projects in Massachusetts following its aim to be solely powered by renewable energy by 2020.