 The final item of business today is the member's business debate on motion number 12084 in the name of Graham Day on welcoming a more energy efficient retail sector. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would be grateful if those members who wish to speak in the debate could press their request to speak buttons now please. I call on Graham Day to open the debate to Mr Day, seven minutes please. Can I begin by thanking all those MSPs who support the motion, allowing this debate to take place, and those who remain behind to participate in it? The Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee of this Parliament has highlighted repeatedly in its work on tackling climate change and driving down emissions that Scotland will only achieve its ambitions with societal and individual behavioural change. Parliament setting targets and government introducing initiatives is all well and good, but without genuine buy-in we are up against it. To get that buy-in you need exemplars of environmentally responsible practice at community level across the public sector and in the private sector. That is why I am pleased to bring forward this debate and commend the efforts of the Scottish Retail Consortium's membership, as highlighted in the report, a better climate-driving resource efficiency. Promoting good practice is an integral part of ensuring that we very quickly reach the point where behaving in an environmentally responsible way is seen as the norm doing otherwise unacceptable. Let us look at what has been delivered by the SRC's membership across the UK and then consider what it plans to achieve by 2020. Target signed up to in 2008 and exceeded cutting energy-related emissions from buildings by 30 per cent, cutting greenhouse gas emissions from supermarket refrigeration by 55 per cent, cutting energy-related carbon emissions from store deliveries by 29 per cent, cutting the proportion of waste sent to landfill from 47 per cent to 6 per cent, and increasing water measurement in sites from 50 per cent to an estimated 83 per cent. New targets for 2020, again using 2005 as the baseline, reducing absolute carbon emissions from retail operations by 25 per cent, cutting energy-related emissions from buildings by half, reducing emissions from refrigerated gases by 80 per cent, reducing carbon emissions from store deliveries by 45 per cent, and measuring 100 per cent of water usage on sites that send less than 1 per cent of waste to landfill. It is worth peering behind those headlines and considering the specifics of what has actually been taking place. Let us look at as that. Carbon emissions from existing stores, offices and depots is down by a third since 2005. They aim to be having 30 per cent of their energy source from renewables by the end of 2015 and are on target to reduce energy consumption within existing stores by 35 per cent this year. They have reduced their packaging by 27 per cent since 2007 and are travelling 18 million fewer road miles compared to 2005. Despite opening 115 new stores over the period, as they saw a 15.8 per cent absolute reduction in their carbon footprint across the UK between 2007 and 2012, the figure for Scotland is 17 per cent. Despite increasing the space taken up by their UK-wide operations by 46 per cent, energy usage in 2013-2014 remained the same as it was in 2005-2006. They aim to have electricity for all 86 of their Scottish stores from renewable sources by 2020. As of 2012-13, no waste goes to landfill. The co-op is targeting an emissions reduction of 50 per cent by 2020. By 2013, some 98 per cent of their electricity was coming from renewable sources, and by 2017, they aimed to have 25 per cent coming from their own renewable resources. That is up from 7 per cent two years ago. The co-op discovered during a trial in 2011 that they could reduce total store energy use by 20 per cent if they fitted doors to their fridges. 298 of those stores, including in Cerniustia and Montefitha, now have that, and the figure has plan to rise to 2,000 stores by 2020. B&Q have reduced carbon emissions by 29 per cent since 2006 and aimed to get to 90 per cent by 2023, partly through using double-decker trailers to reduce total road miles. Waitrose, for example, their suppliers deliver to a central hub in Cumbernaud rather than having to distribute products around all six supermarkets in Scotland. Greggs have installed photovoltaic systems on 10 of their bakeries, including Clyde Mill and Cambuslang. W.A. Smith are sharing vehicles with other retailers. MacDonald's are recycling cooking oil. Turn it into biodiesel for use across 40 per cent of their fleet, which is saving around 6,000 tonnes of carbon per atom. They have also reduced bundtree liners by 10 per cent in size, which is saving over 85 tonnes of paper each year. By redesigning the boxes for one of their most popular lines and the spoons that are given out for consuming ice cream, they are saving 800 tonnes of materials every year. Can I note, as the motion does, the efforts of my constituent, Peter Stirling, who grows sprouts and strawberries just outside our brode? Mr Stirling was recognised by Marx and Spencer for his outstanding contribution to sustainable farming with their farming for the future produce award for Scotland 2014 at last year's Highland show, after he invested in biomass boilers for his greenhouse blocks and using innovative techniques to extend shelf life and reduce waste. Of course, tackling food waste is very much a further stream of work being undertaken by our retailers. If I may just highlight two examples, both involving Tesco and conjunction with Glenarth of Peebles, they have been trialling a new type of recyclable plastic packaging to restrict seepage from broken eggs to that pack that the eggs are contained within. They believe that that is the potential if the measure was rolled out for all of their free-range eggs to save an average of 1 million eggs each year. In addition, Tesco has launched a new zip to frozen pea packages, which they believe could save an estimated 35 tons of peas from rolling out of the bag and onto the back of the freezer or onto the kitchen floor and going to waste. This is real action to deliver real change across a sector with clear plans to build on what has been delivered. The retail sector has looked closely at how it operates and moved to reduce that environmental impact. Of course, those concerns have cut their overheads as a result, but that is part of the behavioural change message for organisations as well as individuals. Change behaviour and both your pocket and the planet benefits, Presiding Officer. Many thanks. We now turn to the open debate speeches of around four minutes or so. Please recall Margaret McCulloch to be followed by Angus MacDonald. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I can apologise that I may have to leave the meeting before 5.30 tonight because I have another meeting on. In the beginning of my contribution this afternoon, I would like to congratulate Graham Day for securing this member's debate on energy efficiency and the retail sector. Graham Day and I have worked together for two or three years now on the cross-party group for towns and town centres. I know that he takes an interest in retail, particularly in smaller retailers and the contribution that they make to the local economies. I also want to welcome the publication of the Scottish Retail Consortium, who is here tonight, in its report, which is referenced in this motion, a better retail and climate driving resources efficiency in Scotland. I want to discuss some of the content of the report in the greater detail, but in the beginning I would observe that this report suggests that the retail industry has made significant progress against the targets that they voluntarily set themselves to reduce waste, lower emissions and improve energy efficiency. Signatories to the SRC agreement have reported the following. Energy emissions from retail buildings are down, greenhouse gas emissions from supermarket refrigeration units are down also, the amount of waste that retailers send to landfill sites is down and even as home delivery services are growing, carbon emissions are coming down too. The target set has not been just met, it has been exceeded and that is a testament to the perseverance and ingenuity of all those retailers who have signed up to this initiative. Among the signatories are some of the biggest names in the industry. Argus, Azra, Bean, Cure, Boots, Stebenhams, John Lewis, Morrison's, Knicks, Sainsbury's, Tesco, The Co-op and many many more. Each of those are large businesses with a substantial footprint in the national economy and in town and town centres all across Scotland. Together they represent over half of the UK-wide retail industry and the scale of the changes that they can make is huge. Take Sainsbury's for example, they have a long-standing commitment to renewable energy. Many of their stores have ground source heat pumps and biomass boilers. However, Sainsbury has also committed to obtaining 20 per cent of its electricity through power purchase agreements by the year 2020. Right now, Sainsbury's is a partner in power purchase agreements with five onshore wind farms providing enough electricity to power each and every one of the company's 86 Scottish stores as well as its depot in East Kilbride. The John Lewis partnership, which is behind Waitrose, is one of the few retailers that have been expanding in Scotland in recent years, just as their new stores will feature the latest energy-saving technology. So, too, will their older stores, as the company rolls out LED lighting, low-flush toilets and low-cabin refrigerators across their existing estates. I have identified that 90 per cent of their environmental impact comes from their supply chain. As I said before, Sainsbury has developed a sustain and save exchange, which aims to support suppliers as they reduce water and energy usage and cut out waste. Those firms are in a unique and powerful position within their sector to not only drive energy efficiency and waste reduction in their own business, but to promote sustainability throughout their supply chain. We cannot green our economy without having business on board. That means green our retailers, but it also means green our suppliers, too. That record of action is welcome, but so, too, is the promise of more. For that reason, I also want to recognise the on-going work of the industry to make further reductions in emissions and to reduce the amount of waste that is going to landfill to just 1 per cent by 2020. Finally, across the business community and big retail chains and small local firms, there is an increase in acceptance that environmentally sustainable models can be both economically viable and socially responsible. The retail sector is uniquely placed to use economies of scale to upscale good practice and to roll it out across the country. I commend their success to date and I hope for more in the years to come. Many thanks. I now call Angus MacDonald to be followed by Jamie McGregor. Thank you, Presiding Officer. At the outset, I thank Graham Day for bringing this motion to the chamber and highlighting the efforts that Scotland's retailers have made in reducing their environmental impact. Clearly, our ultimate aim is zero waste to landfill, and since 2005, when the baseline was set, signatories to the Scottish Retail Consortium's better retail and climate have exceeded all their targets. Graham Day has given some figures already, however. However, some of the figures that he did not cover include reduced absolute carbon emissions from stores and transport by 13 per cent, reduced carbon emissions from stores by 30 per cent, relative to growth, reduced emissions to air from escaped refrigeration gases by 47 per cent, relative to growth, and reduced energy-related carbon emissions from store deliveries by 34 per cent relative to growth. I have some good examples locally in my Falkirk East constituency, where we are lucky enough to have asked a Scottish distribution network operating out of their Falkirk depot. The Falkirk recycling centre handles the waste from all of their 60 stores in Scotland as the trucks take waste back from the stores after dropping off their deliveries, and this approach significantly cuts back their road miles, saves fuel and costs, and reduces pollution. Every year, as the Falkirk centre recycles more than 20,000 tonnes of car and plastic and also uses a rainwater harvesting system that has reduced water usage by a third. In addition, the Asda distribution centre in Falkirk is a strong supporter of the fair share initiative, with all the surplus food that arises in the Falkirk distribution centre redistributed to good causes across Scotland through their fair share partner. Surplus food arises when suppliers send large retailers like Asda too much of a particular product or goods that are damaged in transit. The partnership is the largest of its kind in the UK grocery sector and offers a simple and practical way for Asda to turn an environmental problem into a real benefit for communities. In the last year, Asda in Scotland has donated the equivalent of 265,000 meals to more than 140 good causes, and they have prevented hundreds of tonnes of good food from going to waste. They are now collecting their suppliers' production food waste and delivering it to Falkirk to be redistributed alongside their own surplus food to fair share with Asda covering the cost of transportation and investing £100,000 to grow the capacity of the fair share depots in Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. It is also worth highlighting that none of Asda stores send any food to landfill as waste. If it is still good quality, it is given to charity, but it is sent back to Falkirk to be processed via anaerobic digestion. By making changes to the distribution network, such as using their new double-decker lorry trailers, they now travel 18 million fewer road miles than in 2005 and have reduced transport emissions by 60 per cent. Their double-decker trailers save Asda around 2 million road miles per year by doubling the amount that they can carry on each journey. As a result, they have been awarded the Institute of Grocery Distribution's Sustainable Distribution Award. Asda and Falkirk are doing its bit and leading by example, and other lorry trailers, as we have already heard, have much to be proud of when it comes to aiming for a zero-waste society. We all must lead by example, and it is encouraging that large retailers are now considering the entire life cycle of the products that they sell and are exploring new business models that will enable them to move away from a largely linear economy towards a more circular economy. However, that will require a radical change to how we make, use and reuse materials and products. As our RACI committee highlighted last year following our inquiry into the circular economy, we can all play our part in ensuring that the concept of the circular economy is embedded in all our mindsets. In closing, we are getting there. We will get there, but there is clearly a lot more to do, and we all must lead by example. Many thanks. Our last open debate speaker is Jimmy McGregor. Thank you very much. I am pleased to take part in today's debate, and I congratulate Graham Day on securing it. The Scottish Conservatives commend the Scottish Retail Consortium report, which is very positive and welcome initiative from a sector that has such enormous importance to the Scottish economy. We are also pleased to join Graham Day and others in congratulating the SRC for exceeding all of the targets it set out in its 2008 report. Maybe the Scottish Government could perhaps take a leaf out of the SRC's book in terms of meeting the green targets. Indeed, I would be interested to learn what ministers are going to do to engage with the retail sector to learn from their success and what it is they do to actually achieve their targets, because the achievements of the private retail sector has recorded since 2008 are very impressive, including reducing carbon emissions from stores by 30% and from store deliveries by 29%. These are very welcome achievements given the very real challenges we are facing in trying to reduce emissions further in other sectors like housing and transport. As we have long argued, improving energy and resource efficiency and reducing carbon emissions are not incompatible with growing our economy, rather they should complement each other as David Lonsdale, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium States. Consumers are exceptionally well informed and rightly demanding. They want quality, affordable products, but they want them produced in an environmentally sustainable way. In such a highly competitive market, the retailer that cannot meet this test will ultimately fail. And of course, increasing energy efficiency and reducing energy costs helps the bottom lines of companies and reduces overheads as well as being good for the environment. Being resource efficient is good business sense as well as good environmental sense. The report highlights examples of good practice in the Scottish retail sector, and I'm pleased to see a number of examples in my region of the Highlands and Islands. The co-op store in Kilmally Road, Cool Fort William has been that retailer's first shop to switch to biomass heating. The new system replaces ineffective electric heating with new fan coil heaters heated by £130,000 biomass boiler located in a purpose built building. The boiler runs on wood chips supplied from waste wood products and local forestry, which has masses run there. And this new system has allowed the store to make an annual saving of almost half on its existing energy bills and 90 tonnes in carbon emissions. The co-op plans to assess how effective this biomass pilot has been and then consider its use elsewhere. The new waitress store in Helensborough in Argyll and Bute was designed with all the latest technologies including LED lighting, low carbon water cooled refrigeration, low flush systems and waterless urinals. The Helensborough store also won the Scottish designer award. To conclude, Presiding Officer, I welcome today's debate and the opportunity to acknowledge the very good work being done by Scotland's retailers and to wish them every success in meeting the new targets that they've set for 2020. The sector's happy to work closely with the Government but certainly seems to be outperforming the public sector in achieving resource efficiency targets. I now invite Aileen McLeod to respond to the debate. I, too, would like to begin by thanking Graham Day for raising this important issue and for skewering time in the Parliament for this evening's debate, welcoming a more energy efficient retail sector. I am delighted that this Parliament is highlighting the Scottish Retail Consortium's publication, A Better Retail in Climate, which the Rural Affairs and Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead launched a few weeks ago in January, and to also welcome the SRC to the chamber this evening. I very much welcome leadership shown by the SRC's members in driving resource efficiency and in sourcing and producing their products in an environmentally responsible way. Clearly we agree that Scotland's retailers are to be congratulated for their focus on resource efficiency, both for their ambition and for the considerable progress that they have achieved. I would like to thank my colleagues for their contributions and to say that members have made some very valuable points. It was certainly very good to hear so many positive examples from their local constituencies. I am pleased that we are united in recognising the achievements of our retailers and the Scottish Retail Consortium. It is right that we give the sector the credit that it deserves. Margaret McCulloch made a good point about retailers' influence on their suppliers and, as there is good work in helping their suppliers out of cut resource costs, they are not alone. I will mention another example in a moment. Angus MacDonald also made some very relevant points around the benefits and opportunities of a circular economy. Of course, Scotland is already recognised internationally as an early mover towards a circular economy, but it can also commend Graham Day's constituent, Peter Sterling, who, as Graham Day said, was recognised by Mark Spencers for his outstanding contribution to sustainable farming for the Farming for the Future Produce Award for Scotland 2014 at last year's Highland show. There are a few things more important to a business than building a sustainable supply chain. The Scottish Government and its agencies, notably Resource Efficient Scotland, have played their part. Collaboration across retailers and brands through Government-sponsored initiatives, like we are told, and the product sustainability forum, are helping to drive progress and target effort to deliver the greatest environmental benefits, focusing on savings across energy, water and material use, and preventing waste. I am also aware that there are several individual examples of excellent work with Resource Efficient Scotland, such as Mark Spencers' efforts to improve resource efficiency throughout its Scottish supply chain, helping small and large suppliers to manage their resource use and reduce overheads, and Scotland's work on resource efficient retrofitting of its smaller stores, cutting energy use and reducing costs for the long term. This year, Resource Efficient Scotland will take its programme a step further by offering additional support to all our most resource intensive industrial sectors, including retail, through agreeing sector roadmaps for decarbonisation. Through the programme, we will support industry to reduce carbon emissions, while maintaining economic competitiveness. I am pleased that Resource Efficient Scotland is currently discussing with the Scottish Retail Consortium and British Retail Consortium how to develop a road map for the retail sector that can then inform an agreed programme of activity. That road map will complement those in preparation for other energy intensive sectors, such as food and drink and chemicals. Scotland's retailers have an enormous economic and social footprint, and the steps that the sector is taking to manage its environmental impact are an excellent reminder of the influence that it can have on consumer behaviour. Of course, it is now over. Four months since its charge for single-use carrier bags came into force, and already we are hearing anecdotal evidence of significant reductions in bag use among customers. That can only mean fewer discarded bags harming a natural environment and littering the streets in our communities. That is due, in no small part, to the hard work that retailers have put into helping their customers adapt. However, that is just one area where retailers' influence can change Scotland for the better. Just to answer the question that Jamie MacGregor asked, the Scottish Government has established the Resource Efficient Scotland, and that is precisely to work with businesses across all sectors to reduce energy, water and material use and to cut waste. To conclude, I very much welcome this debate. I thank Graham Day again for bringing this important debate to the chamber tonight. In doing so, he has enabled us to celebrate the good work that is highlighted by the better retail and climate report and the leadership that has been shown by Scotland's retailers in driving down resource use. Our retail sector has a very good story to tell, and it is to be commended for taking this issue as seriously as it has, particularly in terms of cutting carbon emissions and reducing its carbon footprint. The Scottish Government takes its role very seriously in this year's agenda because, ultimately, there are significant environmental and economic benefits for us all, and that is why I welcome the real progress that the retail sector has made thus far on resource efficiency and recognise that we must encourage continued partnership working in support of the move to a more circular economy. Many thanks minister. That concludes Graham Day's debate on welcoming a more energy-efficient retail sector, and I now close this meeting of Parliament.