Green Challenge: Make It Easy to Recycle

For all the talk about sustainability, and there’s plenty of talk, there are some huge holes in the implementation of green strategies.

Case in point: My husband’s company hosted a picnic at the Duke-University of Virginia football game on Saturday. Great fun, but the only thing that choked worse than the Cavaliers’ defense was an attempt to promote green among company attendees. Drinks were served in souvenir cups, colored Blue Devils’ royal, with the company logo in bright green and a tagline promoting green practices. 

However, the problem was we couldn’t take our souvenir cups from the picnic tent into the stadium—neither could any of the other fans carrying bottled waters, sodas or beer cans. All those recyclable materials had to be discarded before we passed through the security gate.

But guess what? There were no recycling bins, just large trash cans.

So much for going green.

My challenge to the retail industry is this: Put recycling bins beside every trash can so that shoppers can just as easily toss a bottle or can into the recycling receptacle as the trash can. Food courts and shopping-center common areas are obvious points where there should be recycling bins, but it also would be useful to have them beside trash cans at the entrances of big-box stores, grocery stores, drug stores, etc.

Yes, it’s going to cost more to implement and add recycling—but there would be some positive PR results and, of course, it is the right thing to do.

This is a perfect opportunity for the retail industry to breathe actionable life into green-speak, and lead the way for entertainment, hospitality and other public-service industries.

By Connie Robbins Gentry

Must Reading: “Stop, Thief!”

I’ve just finished reading an article in The New Yorker (“Stop, Thief,” in the Sept. 1, issue—OK, so I’m a few weeks behind) that offers some interesting insights into a $40 billion-plus problem: retail shrink. The author, John Colapinto, presents an inside view into an industry that, as he so aptly puts it, is “virtually defined by its secrecy.” And in a feat I find truly impressive, he got Target Corp. to go public.

Colapinto interviews Target’s head of asset protection, Brad Brekke (he succeeded the legendary King Rogers to the post in 2001), who created a crime-laboratory complex inside office headquarters. Initially designed to combat retail-theft gangs, the labs have evolved to play a key role in the fight against “e-fencing,” or the resale of stolen goods online via Craigslist, eBay and other Web sites (Interesting tidbit from the article: Among the hottest theft items for sale on auction sites are Dyson vacuum cleaners.) The author was given a tour of Target’s crime labs by the company’s manager of forensic services, Rick Lautenbach. (Attention CBS: This could serve as the basis for another CSI spin-off.)

The labs include a “latent-fingerprinting lab,” where fingerprints not visible to the naked eye can be detected and recorded. Lautenbach explains how it all works, and then tells how the lab played a pivotal role in the recent case of a man suspected of repeated thefts at Target stores in Arizona. The man was eventually convicted of felony trafficking in stolen property and computer tampering.

Also on site: a video-analysis laboratory, and a computer forensics lab, where digital storage devices (ranging from BlackBerrys to cell phones) taken from suspected retail-crime gangs are analyzed. Target isn’t fooling around—its senior computer investigator joined the chain three years ago after a stint in the United States Army where, as part of the Computer Crime Investigative Unit, he analyzed the pictures taken by soldiers at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

As to the extent of the problem, Target asset head Brekke, in remarks made last year before a congressional subcommittee on organized retail crime, said: “In the most recent year, Target alone made approximately 75,000 theft apprehensions in its stores. By comparison, the total number of criminal cases in all federal district courts across the country is usually less than 60,000 in one year.”

Sobering statistics.

By Marianne Wilson

Gap’s French Accent

In well-traveled fashion circles, retail doesn’t get much hipper than Colette. The uber-cool Paris boutique is a showcase for up-and-coming fashion labels, limited-edited products and high-quality brands, from the past and present. More than a store, Colette is a meeting point of fashion and culture for well-heeled hipsters and fashionistas of all ages and stripes from around the globe.

Now, in a surprising collaboration, Colette has joined forces with Gap, whose own hip quotient has been sorely lacking in recent years. The two retailers have joined forces to open a one-month pop-up store adjacent to Gap’s Manhattan flagship on Fifth Avenue and the corner of 54th Street. (It closes on Oct. 5.)

Replicating Colette’s Paris store concept, Colette + Gap features a combination of unique Colette products, otherwise unavailable here, along with items created especially for the temporary store. Prices run the gamut from $10 to $400.

The merchandise ranges from such signature Colette items as stationery, candles, CDs and room fragrances to limited edition T-shirts designed by French and New York artists. Iconic Gap items, such as the trench coat and sweatshirt, have been reinterpreted by designers selected by Colette. A French artisan has designed a collection of key trinkets styled after such classic Gap products as jeans and denim jackets.

According to Gap, the space is designed to capture the spirit of the Paris boutique. The walls are white, and feature unusual typography depicting letters of the alphabet. An illustrated motif that shows cranes lifting shipping cranes, the American flag and boxes with the respective Colette and Gap logos is featured on the walls. The construction theme continues in a yellow-and-black-striped decorative border that recalls the tape used in construction areas.

Colette + Gap is fun. And while it won’t turn around the chain’s image nationwide, it has created quite a buzz on New York’s retail scene. Gap is cool again. At least for a month.

Marianne Wilson