Norwegian grocer Oda displays carbon emissions information on shopping receipts, and the results show that customers are increasingly avoiding products like red meat that increase their carbon footprint. This climate-friendly approach has also led to a rapid increase in sales of plant-based products. Oda's Director of Sustainability stated, "Now, one out of every five burgers sold is plant-based."
Climate receipts come from customer requirements
Oda said the receipts allowed customers to see the carbon footprint of their purchases, leading to fewer orders of red meat and other high-carbon products.
Unlike common promotions in e-commerce, Oda does not offer buy-more-get-more discounts to avoid unnecessary consumption, and uses reusable cardboard boxes for delivery instead of plastic bags.
"Our clients told us it was difficult for consumers to identify whether a product was 'climate-friendly'," said Louise Fuchs, Oda's director of sustainability. "We felt we needed to find a way to address this, so we began looking for simple ways to communicate a product's carbon footprint to consumers."
"We don't want to tell customers what to buy or what not to buy. The Climate Receipt actually came from customer requests."
Sales of meat substitutes and vegetables saw significant growth
Oda and the Norwegian Climate Research Institute Cicero have categorized products into high, medium, and low carbon emissions categories. Since January 2021, they have been informing customers about the carbon footprint of their purchases.
"This has been very positively received by customers. It's led to even faster sales growth for our plant-based products. Now, one out of every five burgers we sell is a plant-based burger, and the overall popularity of plant-based meals has grown accordingly," Fox said. "Lentil soup, which wasn't popular until last year, actually jumped into our top ten best-selling items last year."
"Our customers are buying 50% more fruit and vegetables than the average consumer, and since introducing Climate Invoice, sales of meat alternatives have increased 80% compared to the same period last year."
Fuchs said Oda was the first store in Norway to offer the Climate Receipt. "A year after our launch, we're pleased to hear that several other grocery stores have followed suit. We hope that more and more businesses will join the Climate Receipt movement in the future."
Source: CSRone (https://csrone.com/news/7252)
