Change will come

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A rethink is underway in the pet supplies sector. Mars Pet Care has adopted a package of measures aimed at achieving greater sustainability in its pet food production, Eheim is launching energy-saving filters onto the market, and Kölle Zoo Stuttgart is the first pet store globally to gain environmental certification. The reason, why ?going green? is becoming increasingly popular, has a lot to do with the growing pressure on trade and industry to act in an environmentally responsible manner. Not even the pet sector can defy this social megatrend. Some companies like Eheim, Tetra, Kölle Zoo, Fressnapf, Bosch Tiernahrung and J. Rettenmaier regard doing business in an environmentally compatible manner not as a limitation of their entrepreneurial activity, but rather as an opportunity to position themselves as trendsetters and thereby enhance their image with the customer. A few of them expounded their approach at the International Pet Conference in Amsterdam. Code of conduct for suppliers Take Torsten Toeller, for example, the managing partner of Fressnapf Tiernahrungs GmbH. ?Economic success and sustainability are not mutually exclusive,? he stressed at the International Pet Conference. Fressnapf has therefore put together an ambitious package of sustainability measures that goes far beyond energy saving and also includes a policy of caring for the pets sold in all its stores in a manner appropriate to the species, for example. Starting with improved capacity utilisation in logistics and extending as far as the production of pollutant-free cat scratching trees, the retail group has already come up with various initiatives. Fressnapf is also one of the first suppliers to develop its own pet food eco-brand in ?Bio Plan?. The global dimensions assumed by sustainability are shown by a ?code of conduct? that sets standards for all Fressnapf suppliers. No forced labour, no child labour, reasonable working conditions and safety measures in the workplace and no animal testing are some of the rules set out in the code. Anyone infringing these will be removed from Fressnapf?s list of suppliers. To lead by example, said Toeller in his talk, top quality standards are ensured at Fressnapf?s partner company FAT based in Hong Kong. The production processes and working conditions there are inspected and monitored continuously, the Fressnapf boss confirmed. Environmental certification Matthias Pohl, the managing partner of Kölle Zoo, is…