The Coles RSPCA approval is all about sustainability.

So sustainability is all about being “green” right?

No, it is about a business doing the right thing by; it’s staff, it’s customers, it’s suppliers, it’s neighbours, it’s community and the business itself, all whilst looking to the future.

The new promotion being done by Coles is a classic example of sustainability. This is a great example of a business working on each part of the Triple Bottom Line. Without profit, a business won’t grow and unless a business focusses on it’s customers, it won’t make profit and unless a business does the right thing by the environment it will not make customers happy.

By only sourcing chickens from RSPCA approved sites and then heavily promoting it, Coles is making it’s customers happy and this will logically increase sales and then profits.

Although there is a genuine desire by the company to do the right thing by the chickens, the driving force is that by doing so, it makes Coles look really good, which increases customer happiness and profits go up.

It is without doubt one of the best examples of business sustainability around right now and shows how with planning and passion any business can do the right thing and increase it’s profits at the same time.

However, the cynical response to the whole situation could be – why weren’t the sites already RSPCA approved, what was happening before this? Is it like the whole permeate added to the milk promotion, which was fundamentally done to increase sales of branded milks? Permeate is a natural part of milk and is added back into certain milks to ensure they meet legal requirements for things like protein levels. It is not a bad thing and, unlike the implication of the promotion, is not a chemical added to some milks.

It is vital that any business must ensure that the actions being taken are genuine and that “greenwashing” is not happening, just to increase sales.

This article has been written by Rachelle Williams, The Green Food Safety Coach.