Planet? People? Profit? Nada Problem!

^{A few years ago, I walked into an all-organic healthy sustainable food brunch place after a long morning run. Despite feeling great about eating healthy and supporting my local community, my jaw dropped at the receipt – $15 for a small piece of Avocado toast, something I could have easily made myself for next to nothing. I vowed to never shop there again regardless of the environmental benefits because as a student, I simply can’t afford to pay a “green premium”.}

^{Despite some research showing consumers increasingly care more about purchasing from sustainable companies, many still have price as their primary purchasing criteria. This is where the concept of creating shared value (CSV) triumphs over traditional CSR approaches. CSV takes sustainability to the very core of the business model by making traditionally sound-business decisions to increase profits in ways that also benefit the community and the planet. An excellent example of this is a store just two blocks away from where I live, briefly discussed in class today, Nada.}

^{Nada is a small grocery store that prides itself on having zero waste. It works by making sure none of its products have any sort of packaging. Customers come in and either purchase or bring their own re-usable containers to fill up with many items found at traditional grocery stores.  This makes a massive impact on our environment as around 1/3 of all Canadian waste is from food packaging, yet only 20% of plastics are recycled or reused. This is a significant chunk of the eight million tonnes of plastic from Canada that enters our oceans each year, which is set to double by 2025. Since COVID-19 this number has continued to skyrocket, as many consumers shopped exclusively online, which meant more packaging was required. Additionally, a lot of waste from developed nations are exported to developing nations to metaphorically sweep the problem under their rugs. Each year, the United States exports 2.5 billion pounds of plastic waste to these countries, which creates significant health problems.}

^{By tackling this issued head on, Nada not only reduces the amount of waste to reduce social and environmental problems, but they also save significantly on costs. Although they are still currently more expensive than larger grocery chains, with no packaging expense they can scale faster and save more in the long run. Now that is the power of incorporating CSV into your company!}

^Sources:

^{https://www.nadagrocery.com}

^{https://www.nadagrocery.com/pages/upcycled-container-program}

^{https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/innovative-solutions-canada/en/plastics-challenge-food-packaging}

^{https://foodprint.org/blog/plastic-waste/}