Assessment of food retail business sustainability : the case of Konsum Värmland

Sammanfattning: Public concern and the need of responsible way of doing business have brought forward the issue of sustainability at the forefront of discussion in the last decade. Even though, food retailers are playing an important role in the economy, they are exposed for criticism by media and consumers for any socially and environmentally irresponsible business practices because, the potential environmental and social impacts from their operations are significant. These impacts need to be recognized and properly addressed. The main objective of this study was to assess the sustainable business management of a cooperative food retail business in Sweden, known as Konsum Värmland (KV). The necessary data and information on history and status of KV, and its practical activities concerning the implementation of sustainable development programs as well as the motivation and challenges encountered by KV during the implementation were gathered via reviewing different documents, research papers and press releases; interviewing decision makers and other personnel in KV and other researchers from Swedish University of Agricultural University who have investigated KV. The implementation of sustainability initiatives was analyzed in depth mainly based on triple bottom line sustainability theory which addresses environmental, social and economical dimensions of sustainability. The findings indicate that KV is a successful firm, currently owned by 145,000 members. It has incorporated the sustainability issues into its mission and values. It practically has been implementing sustainability programs in all the three dimensions of sustainable development. It provides environmentally friendly and quality food products using its main brands names for local products. The major drives for KV to implement sustainability initiatives are leadership and employees’ commitment, organizational core values, members’ and consumers’ awareness. On the other hand the major challenges to such sustainability initiatives are high price of greener products, high logistics cost and emission during long winter time with much snow, the seasonality of local product, and high cost of large scale investment. Further study is recommendable to reduce these challenges by designing and implementing more effective approaches of implementing sustainability principles and preparing sustainability report that facilitates further efforts towards sustainable business development. Especially, further study based on detailed quantitative data on emission, waste generation, and efficiency of utilization of resources such as energy, water, paper, vehicles and other resources is necessary.