Planting the seeds: How grocers and CPG brands can lead on sustainability

With intensifying environmental issues, such as climate change, resource depletion, biodiversity loss and plastic pollution, there hasn’t been a more pressing time to concentrate on sustainability. The grocery and CPG industries are well-positioned to influence consumers and collaborate with policymakers and fellow retailers, too. Wesley Gee is the chief sustainability officer at Works Design, a Toronto-based communications and advisory firm that supports clients across North America. His role is to help companies define meaningful sustainability priorities, rather than, as he puts it, “just ticking the boxes.” Here, Gee shares the importance of taking meaningful action and how retailers can work together to drive industry-wide change. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What are the most pressing sustainability challenges facing grocers and CPGs?

There’s a few. One is around climate—climate isn’t just about reducing your footprint and reducing your GHGs [greenhouse gas emissions], it’s understanding how climate is going to impact your wider supply chain. It might impact your access to different materials, for instance. It also relates to companies doing their part to reduce their broader environmental footprint. So, obviously, packaging and manufacturing and distribution all fit into that space. Another issue is supply chain accountability and because of Bill S-211 [a Canadian act focused on increasing transparency and reducing the risk of forced labour and child labour in supply chains], there’s a greater kind of responsibility, a wake-up call for companies to make sure their suppliers have responsible labour practices. And the last thing is transparency, or what I colloquially call “truth.” There is an opportunity for companies to do a better job earning trust by being transparent about their businesses and about the attributes of their products, and maybe doing it from an education standpoint rather than just providing information because they need to.

What’s a good first step beyond simply checking a box?

The first thing is what I call “getting your house in order.” Focus on having good policies in place and identifying the purpose and the vision of your organization. And not only having those [policies in place] but understanding what it means to live them—to show you are a purpose-driven company with a sense of what you want to be in the long-term and how you plan to get there. That’s going to resonate with people. It doesn’t need to be super specific, but understand why you exist as a company. And what values do you need in place to ensure your culture is driven towards meeting those goals? What systems do you have in place to make sure there’s a level of accountability? I think that’s a good start. Doing a materiality assessment [a process used by organizations to identify and prioritize the most important environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues for their business and stakeholders] is an opportunity to connect with others and it’s often a missed opportunity.

In what ways can grocers engage with policymakers to shape practical sustainability policies?

It’s important they pursue things in a collective fashion, perhaps through an industry association, rather than Sobeys pushing for something, Loblaw pushing for something different and Metro going in a third direction. If they’re able to show they can work together on some non-competitive issues, that’s where policymakers are going to listen. It would be massive to show grocery retailers can work together on certain areas.

From a consumer perspective, what are the expectations around sustainability?

I think the bar is quite low. Ultimately, consumers want safe, high-quality products that are reasonably healthy and tied to responsible labour and environmental practices. We see research every year from organizations like GlobeScan that look at which companies stand out from a reputation standpoint on sustainability. I can’t say how that leads to purchasing decisions because I think when people fill out surveys, they are a bit idealistic of what they do versus the decisions they make. But, there is an opportunity for companies with a purpose to engage with their audiences. So, thinking about [sustainability] as an opportunity to differentiate themselves and better connect to Canadians. 

This article was first published in Canadian Grocer's August 2025 issue.