Q&A: Jade Snart, Senior Sustainability and Compliance Expert, George at Asda
Jade Snart is Senior Sustainability and Compliance Expert, George at Asda, the UK retail giant providing the latest fashion for women, men and children.
George at Asda is participating in the Brand Licensing Europe Sustainability Activation in partnership with Products of Change. BLE takes place in person (17-19 November 2021, ExCeL London), and online (30 November – 1 December) and is free to attend.
Six months ago, you spoke about introducing 3D fittings and design and setting 3D tech KPIs throughout the business. What progress has been made since then?
It’s all well and truly under way. 25% of our suppliers are now using 3D technology – of those, 60% of them are in the learning stage, and 40% are using the tech for delivery. We’ve used tech to launch a fully digital (end to end) range, using life-like digital avatars through the whole design process, which means we only saw samples at Gold Seal stage.
We’ve also calculated the number of samples we would have used for a product would have melted the equivalent size of half a laptop worth of Arctic ice. For George, this means we could potentially save a terraced house size piece of ice each year.
You also talked about 70% of your supplier base engaging with the Higg Index Platform – has that increased and how are you going about encouraging/enforcing that engagement?
It’s now up to 83% and over 75% of these are fully engaged. We’ve just entered our first year of auditing, which means we can start to map out what that means and working with suppliers on where we need to go next in terms of, for example, water and energy use.
As well as converting existing suppliers to engage with the platform, any new suppliers who come on board with George are required to register with the Higg Index. We’re currently working through what our criteria is at the moment so that we can match strategy and sustainability goals.
How’s the Preloved partnership going?
Sustainability is about much more than the manufacturing process. It’s also about reducing volume to landfill. We launched our Preloved offering to introduce customers to the idea of wearing second hand at the back end of 2020 and that’s now been rolled out across 50 of our stores. Our ambition is for this to be rolled out further.
All of our clothes now feature the ‘Wear me, care for me, share me’ logo, which we are using to foster a new hand-me-down mentality, which was the norm just 40 or 50 years ago.
You’re taking part in the Sustainability Activation at Brand Licensing Europe (17-19 November at ExCeL London), what can visitors expect to see from George at Asda?
We’ll be showcasing our latest Hasbro and Peppa Pig campaign, which will launch end of October and we will have our 100% responsibly sourced school uniforms on display. We’ll be bringing some of the 3D technology that we’ve been using so people can see for themselves how it works, and how brilliantly lifelike the digital avatars are. Over 80% of our shopfloor is now responsibly sourced so we are quietly pleased with the progress we’ve made to date.
What’s the one message you’d like them to leave with?
My message is always the same – don’t try to do everything all at once or you’ll end up doing nothing. The important thing is you start changing, however small.
