Lifestyle Transition

Move towards a low-carbon green life together with consumers

In addition to industrial transition, as one of the industries with the closest link to people’s lives, PCSC assists consumers with their lifestyle transition. Just like the slogan “My Sustainability, Your Daily Life,” we make good use of our core retail capabilities to promote sustainable actions in everyday consumer lives such as “food waste reduction,” “plastic reduction” and “carbon reduction” to promote low-carbon diets, reduce food waste, encourage plastic reduction and recycling to help consumers move towards a low-carbon green life. In addition to promoting sustainable life to consumers, we became a TCFD supporter in May 2022 to respond to climate change issues in line with international trends, as well as supporting the government’s social transition strategies with actions.

 

Zero Waste Low-Carbon Diet

Veggie Selection

Due to the impact of the pandemic and climate change in recent years, we have noticed that citizens lay more emphasis on health and environmental protection. To this end, PCSC took the lead as the first retail channel to launched its own brand, “Veggie Selection.” at the end of 2020. In November 2021, the first “Veggie Selection Compound store” opened its doors with almost many plant-based food items. Besides frozen box meals and microwave fresh food, home-cooked vegetarian food products at different temperature were introduced to satisfy the needs of different consumption situations. Veggie Selection also took the initiative to create a detailed vegetarian label system with different production lines, so that everything is clear and reassuring for consumers upon making purchase decisions. Vegetarians and vegans attach great importance to the labeling of food ingredients. To help them identify product content, we have launched 13 vegetarian/plant-based labels. Categories are distinguished by green and orange for different groups by listing whether ingredients such as spices, milk and eggs are used in the products. Vegetarians and vegans also attach great importance to food production details as well. Prior to the emergence of the vegetarian/vegan markets, most production lines produced both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food with very few strictly vegetarian ones. As a result, PCSC dedicated a lot of effort and cost to create special production lines for vegetarians by strictly controlling every step of the procedure from the production. Combined with the existing supply chain advantages,we have launched the first vegan production line with a Taiwan Certified Agricultural Standards (CAS) label. From the use of raw materials to the production line, we are committed to meeting the needs of various vegetarian/vegan consumers.

In the future, PCSC will create a more professional vegan/vegetarian brand for consumers based on the three strategies of “co-branded green meal,” “expanding sales bases” and “optimizing vegan/vegetarian food labels.” PCSC plans to launch new products, collaborate with known brands and attract vegan/vegetarian consumers with a diverse product structure, as well as providing accurate information on the labels as the most convenient kitchen for vegan and vegetarian consumers. In the future, more eco-friendly and sustainable production methods will be adopted, including using local raw materials to reduce carbon footprint and whole food ingredients.

 

Food Waste Management

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), one-third of the food produced in the world is discarded at roughly 1.3 billion tonnes. Food waste is not simply about wasting ingredients, it involves the loss of resources consumed during food production, including land, water, energy and labor, etc., which may also lead to food security problems. The decomposition of food waste in landfills also produces greenhouse gases. Therefore, the urgency of reducing food waste is self-evident.

As part of the retail industry, PCSC is closely intertwined with food. It has taken the responsibility in reducing food waste from three stages including “production,” “order shipment” and “retail.” In 2021, the Food Waste Reduction Task Force was set up under the Sustainability Development Committee, regularly reporting the progress of the project to the Sustainability Development Committee.

Production: Reducing Food Waste from the Production of Fresh Food Products

PCSC reduces food waste from the factory production process through three major changes. First of all, production is now initiated upon order receipt instead of estimation to better control the production volume. The second reducing the waste of raw materials through the centralized production of various items. Last but not least, two adjustment of raw material estimates are performed prior to production to avoid excessive material in stock caused by weather changes or order fluctuations. The surplus after production is provided as employee meals. Finished and semi-finished products are also resold to employees to reduce food waste.

 

Order Shipment: Reducing Food Waste from Excessive Stock

PCSC has set up an AI order forecasting system at store end to reduce inventory and scrapped goods through placing accurate orders. The store end keeps the most suitable items on the shelves through monitoring the ones that are often scrapped because they don’t sell well each month. In addition, starting from August 2020, the ordering time for 4°C fresh prepared food was advanced to 12 hours before delivery. This allows fresh food factories to adjust supply and demand earlier and reduce food depletion to a minimum. In the meantime, in order to reduce food loss in the process of logistics and distribution, PCSC has extended the validity period of fresh food products in 2022. New technologies have been adopted to allow for the extension, such as the high-temperature sterilization equipment and special sealing film to reduce food waste.

 

Retail: Reduce Food Waste from Scrapped Food

PCSC introduced the ＂iLove Food＂，program that takes advantage of the “smart labeling system” that was originally used for flagging expired products to prevent expiration. Besides managing the shelf life of food, this allows for better control over the “best before” time (8 hours prior to expiration). A 35% discount is given 8 hours prior to expiration on over 100 products. The “iLove Food Map” was also launched on the OPEN POINT APP in November 2021 to check on the stock as well as subscribing for product availability notifications. In the future, PCSC also plans outsource cleaning and transportation to certain stores, all of which will join the food waste recycling process.

PCSC will continue to manage the value chain, stay updated with factory production losses, the scrap rate of fresh food (the percentage of decline in the amount of food waste per NT$ million in revenue), the recovery rate of food waste in stores (the proportion of stores with food waste recycling) and other management indicators, in order to achieve the goal of halving food waste by 2030 (with 2019 as the base year) and contributing to the mitigation of climate change.

 

Use Instead of Owning

Recycled Cups Renting Service

According to the statistics of the Environmental Protection Administration as many as 4 billion disposable beverage cups are consumed each year. The production of beverage cups and waste disposal both cause a heavy burden on the environment that cannot be ignored. PCSC joined hands with President Packaging Ind. Corp. to create the first “OPEN iECO Recycled Cup Renting Machine. It took more than a year and invested more than 10 million to successfully establish 500 stores by the end of 2022 to provide recycled cups renting services. Consumers can borrow and return reusable circular cups by accessing OPEN POINT on their mobile phones, namely the dedicated membership app, to reduce environmental pollution caused by disposable beverage cups. The OPEN iECO Recycled Cup Renting machine has developed the first “stacking” function on the market, effectively saving about 50% of the space each time it is filled. In addition, the cup has a patented PP heat insulation layer to reduce the amount of cup sleeves. The recycled cups that are retired afterwards will be turned into other items to achieve resource reuse.

In order to promote the use of recycled cups renting service, we started from "convenience" and "rewards". In terms of convenience,the recycled cups service was introduced to 500 stores in 2022，and the service area is expected to expand to another 500 stores in 2023 for a total of 1,000 stores. In terms of rewards, in addition to providing an NT$5 discount for bringing your own cup in line with the regulations, PCSC offers an NT$7 discount for bringing your own cup on the first of each month. In 2022, the percentage of bring your own cup grew from 6.29% in 2021 to 12.18%, achieving the 10% goal for this year. In 2023, PCSC’s goal for bring your own cup has been increased to 15%, continuing to encourage consumers to reuse cups. The PCSC recycled cups renting service has also received external recognition as the first enterprise to win the “Excellence in Circular (Rental) Cup Service” by the Environmental Protection Administration. 。

 

Intelligent Automatic Recycling Machine

PCSC pioneered the 100% locally built “Intelligent Automatic Recycling Machine” , which took more than one year for PCSC and President Packaging Ind. Corp. It recycles PET bottles and dry cells using patented AI optical image and material identification technology while being easy and fast to use. To encourage people to take advantage of the machine, they can earn store gift vouchers by recycling PET bottles and batteries.The unique “crushing” feature can crush PET bottles into flakes, optimizing the existing procedure of recycling flattened PET bottles on the market, effectively reducing the volume by up to 75% and increasing the number of recycled bottles with the same volume, greatly reducing the environmental impact of transportation and minimizing carbon footprint. In addition, recycled PET bottles are subsequently entrusted to a professional manufacturer by President Packaging Ind. Corp. to turn into recycled materials that are used to make store uniforms or products that can be sold in the stores. PCSC also works with major PET bottle manufacturers in Central, Southern Taiwan and outlying islands to build a “bottle to bottle” recycling system. Recycled PET bottles are handed to manufacturers for turning into new PET bottles through professional technology, giving new life to discarded PET bottles and building a green circular supply chain.

The Intelligent Automatic Recycling Machine Task Force holds monthly meetings to review the progress of the promotion of intelligent automatic recycling machines. By the end of 2022, the machines have been installed in 50 stores with nearly 40,000 people recycling a total of over 400,000 PET bottles and dry cells. It is estimated that another 200 intelligent automatic recycling machines will be installed in 22 counties and cities in 2023.

 

Good Neighbor Cardboard Library

Since 2014, PCSC Good Neighbor Foundation has promoted reading motivation for students through the Reading Program by continuing to support the schools in the network. Rural elementary school libraries have outdated facilities that reduce the students’ willingness to step into the library, which in turn has an impact on reading education. In view of this, PCSC joined hands with Cheng Loong Corp., Retail Support International to create the Good Neighbor Cardboard Library for the Hudong Branch of Liujia Elementary School in Tainan City. The Good Neighbor Cardboard Library was coordinated by the Good Neighbor Foundation, with PCSC providing recycled cartons to Retail Support International for sorting and transportation, before Cheng Loong Corp. utilizing low-carbon green manufacturing and design development technologies to decompose the recycled cartons into 100% recycled corrugated cardboard, ending up in the form of sustainable paper tools that met the reading needs of schoolchildren. In addition, PCSC prepared the space by investing people to assist with renovation, cleaning and transportation. Associated companies also offered books as the first batch of books for the cardboard library. We took advantage of our resources as a retail channel and collaborated with many different parties to make circular economy a reality as well as improving the reading environment in rural areas to create a sustainable and circular ecosystem.

Eco-friendly Green Fashion

7-ELEVEN “Brings Back the Love” Sustainable Circular Economy Project

PCSC has furthered its collaboration with social welfare and social enterprises through the 7-ELEVEN Bring Back the Love fundraising platform. In 2021, it collaborated with the Cerebral Palsy Association of R.O.C. and zero-waste fashion social enterprise Story Wear on the “Addition and Subtraction in the New Life – CHIC Corporate Charity Project” to create a sustainable circular economy for convenience stores. Sustainable products are designed and remade by the social enterprise before being handmade by social welfare organizations. Consumers can purchase the products from stores or the preorder website to create job opportunities for families with patients of cerebral palsy. The funds raised will be invested in the employment program for patients of cerebral palsy.

Two new sustainable products were launched in 2022, including the “Hugging Hedgehog Bag” and “Small Star and Moon Bag on Strap.” The materials for the products come from PE bottles and milk bottles recycled by PCSC stores. Moreover, PCSC helped its supplier Swire Coca-Cola to join the initiative by donating recycled PET bottles. The bottles are then made into recycled fabrics. With designs by Story Wear, the bags are hand-sewn by mothers of children with cerebral palsy in the non-profit organization. To let consumers who agree with the concept feel the warmth of the product, children with cerebral palsy worked together with the popular online character Happy Cat in 2022 to demonstrate their feelings and dreams.

This project realizes circular economy by not only solving the problem of plastic waste, but also creating employment opportunities for families with children of cerebral palsy and connecting them with the society, helping them find self-worth and a sense of accomplishment while reducing plastic and helping the disadvantaged, creating a win-win situation for public welfare groups, social enterprises and corporates.
(Note) Please click here to watch the video.

 

Plastic Reduction Stores on Outlying Islands

To reduce the environmental impact of plastic waste from tourism on outlying islands, PCSC became the first convenience store to set up two Plastic Reduction Future Stores on Orchid Island in June 2022 in line with “Guidelines for Source Waste Reduction Service Design for Convenience Stores on Outlying Islands” issued by the Environmental Protection Administration. The stores adopt the three principles of “unpackaged, large packaging, and alternative materials” to tailor a “disposable waste reduction” plan for outlying islands. First of all, most beverage PET bottles are replaced by aluminum cans that are easy to recycle, and packaged food and refrigerated dairy products are sold in family-sized large packages so as to reduce waste from packaging. In terms of fresh food products, microwaved box meals adopt packaging with reduced plastic. Plastic packaging is replaced by round paper boxes, and the plastic lids are replaced by seal with less plastic. Paper packaging has also been introduced. Recycled cups renting services and recycling machines have also been introduced to encourage people to produce less plastic waste. According to the estimates of the Environmental Protection Administration, it can reduce the generation of plastic waste by about 1.3 metric tonnes per year. In the future, the program will be expanded to stores in Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, Green Island and Lambai Island.
(Note) Please refer to the "Resource Efficiency"page for other plastic reduction management and actions.