Shelf Space Will Go to Greenest Companies, Author Says

MICHAEL GARRY

LAS VEGAS — The CPG companies that answer sustainability questions the best and prove to have the smallest sustainable footprint “are going to get more shelf space,” said Andrew Winston, founder of Winston Eco-Strategies, during his keynote session at the FMI Show/Marketechnics here yesterday. “You and your peers are starting to do this already,” Winston, author of “Green to Gold,” said to a large audience of supermarket executives at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. He predicted that every product will carry with it data on how much energy and water were used in its production, and even whether the employees who made it “were paid a living wage.” He cited Wal-Mart Stores’ policy of asking its 60,000 suppliers to reduce their packaging, pointing out that just in the detergent category this has saved 400 million gallons of water, 100 million pounds of plastic and 125 million pounds of corrugated cartons.

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