Greenwash Watch: Loblaws: Something Can Must Be Done
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10. 4.07
Canada's biggest grocery chain has been struggling of late, and has been trying to paint itself green with its shopping bags and its tag line "something must be done". When Galen Weston Jr. took over he promised local food; we visited in July and were disappointed, as we noted here. We visited the Christie and Dupont store after our shop at Fiesta farms to check out progress. As promised, there was a stand in the store with a flag over saying "Ontario Grown-picked at its peak." In front of the stand: a few laquered ornamental pumpkins. Filling the stand: cranberries, which I thought were a late harvest product so I looked more closely:
yup. Made in the good old US of A.
What a shame; what an embarrassment. What used to be the most innovative store in Ontario can't even fill a four foot square cardboard display with Ontario produce at the height of the harvest. No wonder the manager came after me for taking pictures. No wonder they are in trouble.
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Um. No it's not. I recently bought a basket of pears and everything on that little table was actually a product of ontario. from the tomatoes to the potatoes to the pears! perhaps someone misplaced it? i highly doubt that loblaws would be so irresponsible...
If something must be done, then why isn't all their food organic local? why only certain objects?
This Loblaws / Superstore campaign is a pitiful attempt at greenwashing. They have introduced half a dozen environmentally friendly products that are almost invisible on the shelves with 14 competing brands. (is a concentrated liquid laundry detergent in a plastic bottle better than concentrated powder?)
This is peak apple season in Canada but I bet they are still offering New Zealand apples.
All supermarkets are huge energy consumers with open freezers spilling cold air into the aisles while a natural gas furnace heats the store. They could do the environment a huge favour by improving their energy efficiency, reducing waste and finding the closest suppliers. There is no point shipping organic lettuce 5000 miles and then having it rot on the shelves but that is the reality.
It is completely ridiculous to use the slogan "Something MUST be done" and then do almost nothing. To their credit they have promoted reusable shopping bags, but where I live the plastic ones are still free and they only half-fill them.
Not only is Loblaws not green, it's toxic. At Toronto's Loblaws Forest Hill Market employees smoke in the glass shed where shopping carts are dispensed and right outside the narrow entrance to the store I have complained about this for eight years.