RTS 2025: sustainability pays as Currys, Asos and British Retail Consortium share green stories

In a sustainability conference panel at Retail Technology Show 2025 in London last week, Paula Coughlan, Chief People, Communications & Sustainability Officer at Currys, said her firm is making more money on a used mobile or laptop now than a new one due to sustainability efforts. Representatives from Asos and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) also shared their green stories.

“We do a huge amount of recycling,” said Coughlan on the final day of the event held in London last week, pointing to Currys’ 100,000 tonnes per annum effort, which represents 44% of the retail industry’s yearly e-waste recycling. “There are lots of spare parts that can be reused and have commercial value, while you’re simultaneously doing the right thing. We have the largest repair facility in Europe with 1,000 colleagues there.”

Currys also has 12 million UK customers on its care and repair insurance type promise to fix goods. It does 1.4 million repairs annually, which boosts its green credentials as well as providing revenue to the business from reusing those valuable electrical parts. The retailer has three key goals in this area, aiming to:

Give technology a longer life: “Our recycling efforts is the star of this,” said Coughlan.  

Achieve net zero by 2040: This Currys initiative actually aligns with the BRC’s policy outlined in its earlier Climate Action Roadmap to help the industry reach this target, explained fellow panellist Sophie De Salis, Sustainability Policy Adviser, BRC, at the RTS trade show.    

Alleviate digital poverty: via a skills for the future programme that links to the Neighbourly platform that can enable corporate volunteering and many other such efforts.  

Currys also has a Cash for Trash programme launched a year ago, explained Coughlan, that encourages consumers to bring in any old tech gathering dust in their homes in return for a £5 voucher so that it can be safely disposed of and mined for any valuable parts.

Currys now has a partnership initiative with Deloitte’s 25,000 employees to further encourage uptake. “The scheme helps our recycling efforts and footfall,” said Coughlan.

Asos

Next to share their retail green credentials and the positive impact it can have on supply chains and efficiency was Jag Weatherley, Managing Director for Europe & Rest of World at Asos. She too stressed that “circularity” is a good thing, pointing to how the growing clothes rental market is extending the life of goods, which acts as a counter to the fast fashion trend over the last decade.

“November was big for us in the sustainability arena as we had a reset recently under our banner of Fashion with Integrity,” said Weatherley, while discussing the three main pillars in their strategy, consisting of:

·       Product: where the aforementioned circularity of clothes is important and its sourcing.   

·       Planet: where recycling efforts are key.

·       People: “We are nothing without our people,” said Weatherley, while stressing that this included diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and outreach to help unemployed women back into work after children or other pauses or stalls in their work life by partnering with the Smart Works charity.    

Industry wide efforts

As the UK trade body for the UK retail sector, the BRC is keen to support its members’ sustainability and other green efforts, while also acknowledging that it can provide a unified voice when talking to the government about regulations and how they might impact retailers.

One such example is the FCA rules focused on transparency that attempt to stop ‘greenwashing’ via the UK government’s Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) policy. The BRC’s policy adviser in this area, De Salis, referred to regulations during the RTS 2025 debate as: “The elephant in the room.” 

The organisation also tries to help its members via policies like its nature plan launched last year to aid biodiversity in the supply chain or its deforestation efforts. The BRC also has a responsible sourcing programme where it has worked with IBM and its Mondra Coalition that uses an open source methodology to harmonise the measurement of carbon footprinting.

Saving the planet sounds all well and good, plus it can help the bottom line, Currys has proven. However, it is also often the first thing to go when times get tough as they are for retailers at the moment with the cost-of-living crisis deterring consumer spending and operational costs going up.

“I’d advise doing a risk v reward analysis,” said De Salis in regard to this issue. “Get internal buy in via education and the commercial leaders on board as well.”