Charity Retail News Issue #2 June 2023
New sustainability stats help charities support the message of The Great Big Green Week
Lots of charities are taking part in The Great Big Green Week with hundreds of events across the country, from beach cleans to repair shop drop-ins all happening the week of 10th - 18th June. Charity retail is doing its bit by promoting the environmental benefit of buying pre-loved with customisable posters available from the CRA website.
To coincide Eproductive released their new Green Report to all EPRTouch clients giving landfill and carbon dioxide savings by shop or area for any time period.
Lynn Preece, Retail Area Manager at Severn Hospice said:
“Second hand and sustainable is what works for this generation. Being able to put a figure on each shops' contribution is such a smart idea"
Estimating the amount of landfill avoided by reselling an item is calculated by assigning an average weight to each shop department. When an item is sold the average weight for that department item is recorded and added to your total landfill saving. For example the default average item weight for the department Ladies Tops is 0.4kg and for Sofas it is 40kg.
To estimate carbon dioxide emissions research from a number of different sources, including academia, trade associations and specialist recycling companies, produced a default conversion value of 13.48kg of CO2 saved per 1kg of manufactured textiles. For example buying a preloved 0.4kg ladies’ top saves roughly 0.4 x 13.48 = 5.4kg of CO2 verses an equivalent newly manufactured item. Charities either use this default conversion for all departments or input their own estimates of different conversion factors for different departments.
See our CO2 Customer Display Demo at the CRA Conference
We’re headline sponsors at 2023’s Harrogate conference and will be showcasing CO2 on the CDU at stand 25. Drop by to scan some items through our till with the chance of an instant win if you can guess the CO2 saving!
At the end of a transaction, the CO2 saving from the purchase of donated items automatically appears on the customer facing display. Calculated by assigning an average item weight to each shop department, (see green week article on this page), it’s a very direct way to communicate the environmental benefit of buying from, and donating to, your local charity shop.
An initial shop trial last year produced very positive feedback from customers. They expressed amazement at how much CO2 they’d saved by buying pre-loved rather than new, and felt it would change people’s attitudes towards buying from charity shops in the future.
My Charity Shop App Shortlisted for the Retail Systems Awards
Eproductive’s My Charity Shop app has been shortlisted for 2023’s Mobile Innovation of the Year at the Retail Systems Awards. Winners will be announced on the 29th June at London’s Waldorf Hilton.
Director Nick Cowls said
“We’re delighted to be shortlisted for this national retail award. Almost three years of development work went into the My Charity Shop app and this year things have really started to take off. We have over 20 charities live on the app and 10 more soon to join. Gift aid donors all receive an automated thank you email after donating, and 10%-15% decide to install their gift aid card on the app. We also know those donors raise twice as much for their charity as non-installers.”
Recent innovations on the app include What’s in Store, a tile that allows shop managers to list an item with a photo and description in moments – perfect for specialist furniture shops. Find out more about the What’s in Store tile here