London Drugs

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From recycling to the promotion of efficient lighting, London Drugs is a leader in B.C.

Mary Frances Hill
For bchydro.com

It sounds like a trendy marketing slogan: sustainability makes sense to the bottom line. Green is good business.

Any retailer can adopt a catchphrase in an effort to attract customers. Then there are those businesses that have strived for sustainability in the products they sell, or in their ways of management for so long, that no quick slogan would do them justice.

London Drugs' senior vice president Clint Mahlman recognizes them as early adopters.

He should know. He's at the top of a huge and growing retail chain whose customers and staff recognize there's no separation between energy savings, environmental management and the bottom line.

Those beliefs helped London Drugs took BC Hydro's Power Smart Excellence Award in the Retailer category in 2009.

"First of all we are a private family company," says Mahlman. "And as such the family has strict beliefs; we have been doing things now coined 'green' for decades because they've always been the right thing to do."

The Louie family, under H.Y. Louie group and president Tong Louie, acquired the then small chain from an American owner in 1976. Since then, it's grown into its own recognizable brand, known for its environmental innovation.

Simple acts – reducing energy bills, waste and promoting eco-conscious choices – are based on good finance, he says.

"If you think of something as simple as reducing your hydro bill by 10%, that's money that wasn't available before. Things like reducing your waste to municipal landfills helps reduce costs.

"Products that are made with a smarter design or designed with the good of the environment in mind, there's a percentage of customers that react strongly and look for those types of things."

Future perfect

London Drugs' status as an early adopter started decades ago, says Mahlman.

"For decades we've used computer-controlled and remote-controlled energy management systems, obviously things like the lights that go to half-power when there are no customers in the store. The air-conditioning isn't fully on when there's no customers in the store."

The future of London Drugs will be founded on the experiments taking place today.

The company is researching the benefits of outdoor LED signage. Some stores are looking at the company's initiatives in Westbank, B.C.

The London Drugs in that Okanagan community is "daylighting" the store, using many very large multiple skylights that bathe shoppers in natural light. The dry, sunny climate is just right, but the notion is still attracting attention from managers of stores from as far away as Duncan and Squamish.

"There's a lot more rain and more cloud, so we'll see how that turns out," he jokes.

The future also includes work on proposals through the Power Smart program to re-lamp its 450,000 square foot distribution centre, in which he already sees some "promising on-paper results for conversion."

Art of the (green) deal

Communications with the public, one of the main tenets of London Drugs' environmental policy, could be its strongest, says Mahlman.

London Drugs offered 30 Power Smart clinics last year, attracting shoppers to Power Smart booths "at least three and four deep" at a time.

Online, the "What's the Green Deal?" program puts information about sustainability on full display – with in-store signage, flyer features and the company's website www.greendeal.ca.

It's easy to find recycling drop-offs for plastic bags, batteries, electronics and appliances in each store.

With the help of environmental-marketing consultant Unicycle Creative, London Drugs helps customers compare products on the shelf. In its blog, Unicycle Creative explains the appeal.

"'What's so green about a computer router, even if it does have an Energy Star rating?' I hear you say," writes Unicycle Creative's Lorne Craig. "Fair enough. But if someone does need a router, they should be able to quickly identify the one with the best environmental attributes. And if the hundreds of thousands of people that shop London Drugs' 69 stores are learning about environmental benefits on the shelf, I believe that drives the movement to green awareness forward, in a very mainstream way."

The public is taking note. The Calgary Herald daily newspaper recently praised London Drugs for its packaging recycling program, which allows customers to leave product packaging – anything from cardboard to styrofoam – at a customer service desk.

London Drugs' reputation as an early adopter can also be found at any London Drugs' computer department.

Certified Data products, the store's own brand name of laptop computers, are made in London Drugs' Richmond facility, and designed to conform to Europe's tough standards for reduction of hazardous waste.

"They're built so that when they're disassembled and recycled there's less harmful items in the landfill," says Mahlman.

In the end, London Drugs has proven that the 'green' ethos is about much more than marketing.

If saving money and saving the environment also translates to attracting customers, it's a business no-brainer, he says.

"We use 'green' in quotations but making good business decisions is entirely consistent with being a sustainable company."

London Drugs recycling facts

London Drugs continually audits its waste and recycling programs through its partnership with Waste Management of Canada.

On average, each month London Drugs recycles:

• 50,000 pounds of e-waste filling two semi-trailers of electronic waste each week
• 8,377 pounds of plastic
• 765,000 pounds of cardboard