Leading the greening of local high streets

Len Glenville
Chair, National Association of Health Stores

With Environmental Reporting set to become a mandatory requirement for all UK businesses in 2025, the incentive to run a greener business - and be able to demonstrate it - has never been stronger. The NAHS believes that if health food retailers act early to become ‘legislation-ready’ they can lead the ‘greening’ of local high streets.

Health food retailers are already plugged in to the sustainability debate and often have a head start over the rest of the high street in areas such as responsible and local sourcing, and through offering a deep range of greener food choices such as organic and plant-based.

We could make the point that many health store customers have already ‘bought into’ sustainability through those choices, and that by visibly aligning with green values, stores are sending a strong signal to customers that they are part of the solution.

But what about potential customers?

A survey carried out by Deloitte concluded that sustainability is a key consideration for most consumers, with Gen Z adopting more sustainable behaviours than other demographic groups. Consumers really want to do more but many want information and clarity from a trusted source, so let’s not lose the opportunity to shout our green credentials from the rooftops.

We recognise that obstacles such as time, cost, and where to start may hinder some individual retailers from undertaking an environmental assessment on their business. Therefore NAHS has recently partnered with leading environmental impact specialist Greenleaf TDG to give members a 10% discount on a Green Audit of sustainability, including the awarding of the Greenleaf Certificate of Sustainability on successful completion, an excellent resource to promote your store.

It was great seeing so many of you again at Natural & Organic Products Europe. What a great show and invaluable in giving us the chance to talk to you face-to-face about new and recent NAHS initiatives such as our virtual store tours, special offers and our current membership drive. We hope you enjoyed our new membership video which was played in the theatres and hope to see you all at the NHT Summit later in the year.

The NAHS committee are committed to ensuring that independent healthfood stores are given the full recognition they deserve and have access to all of the tools they require to make a success of their businesses, but we do need the support of retailers to achieve this.

NAHS - Your Association, Your Voice. Join for as little as £21 per month via the ‘Sign Up’ button on our website www.nahs.co.uk and together we can drive our industry forward.

Contact [email protected] or call 01875 341408 for further details.