R-Kiosk puts eco-friendliness at the heart of its business, taking a big step towards a sustainable future by switching to 100% green energy. This shows that convenience shopping can be both easy and responsible.
Tiia Ilves, CEO of Reitan Convenience Estonia, explains how informed choices and the inspiring of partners are key to making the entire industry greener and more sustainable.
Please tell us a little about your company.
Reitan Convenience Estonia is known in Estonia for the R-Kiosk and Caffeine brands. We are one of Estonia’s leading convenience retail companies, being part of the Reitan Retail Group, one of the largest retail companies in Europe. Sustainability is an integral part of our operations and we want to contribute to slowing down climate change. The adoption of green energy truly reflects the company’s values.
Why did you choose Enefit as your green energy partner?
We opted for green energy from Enefit, as Enefit is a long-term and reliable partner that can provide high-quality service and responsible solutions.
Why did you decide to switch to 100% green energy?
We believe that our industry has great responsibility and influence, and we want to inspire other companies to make better choices as well. We want to lead by example and drive change in the industry by making business choices today that support our goal of making convenience shopping sustainable and sustainability convenient.
Every company – large or small – needs to understand that we simply cannot carry on in the old way. For example, when calculating our climate impact, we need information from all our business partners which we have never asked for before. To find solutions, it is often necessary to collaboratively change our existing work processes.
Have you communicated with any partner companies about ESG goals and green energy? Or maybe it could also be a competitive advantage?
A very important part of our sustainability strategy is to encourage our partners to set sustainability goals for themselves. That is why we are always in dialogue on these topics, and we also set certain expectations.
We believe that it is very important to share knowledge and experience between companies. By now, ESG should no longer be a competitive advantage, but a matter that everyone is actively working on together for the benefit of both their own business and our common future.
Do you measure the performance of your activities?
Yes, we also measure our activities in numbers to make environmentally sound business decisions. We have prepared an ESG report for two years now, although it only became mandatory this year.
Our footprint comes mostly from our assortment. Last year’s report showed that we have already managed to reduce our footprint compared to 2022, and this was achieved through assortment planning. This gives us confidence that we are on the right track with our activities. That is why our goals also focus heavily on making more sustainable choices in our assortment.
On what principles do you choose your assortment?
When planning our assortment, we consider the health of both people and the planet. We have increased the proportion of vegetables in many products and at the same time reduced the use of red meat.
It is very important to us that the coffee sold by both our brands, R-Kiosk and Caffeine, is certified organic. This means that the journey of our new coffee beans from the coffee plantation to the customer’s coffee cup is very carefully thought out. Thus, our coffee beans are grown without synthetic pesticides, fertilisers and genetically modified components, also ensuring fairer income and better working conditions for coffee farmers in developing countries. In production, attention has been paid to biodiversity and climate friendliness, and 100% renewable energy sources have been used.
From October, we doubled the ‘bring your own cup’ discount for both brands – from 10% to 20% – to motivate people to prefer reusable cups and reduce the use of single-use packaging. In addition, we also offer reusable cups as an option in all our cafés.
Are there any other eco-friendly solutions that you use in your company?
We have already optimised energy consumption – for example, some refrigerators in our stores are turned off at night to avoid excessive energy consumption. During the renovation of our stores, we have taken a thorough look at the materials we use and switched to more sustainable solutions.
We also actively contribute to food rescue by cooperating with the Food Bank, food-sharing points and the ResQ Club app. As the expiration date approaches, we lower the price of fresh food in stores and offer pastries at a lower price in our cafés two hours before closing.
However, we see that when it comes to reducing food waste, people are often apprehensive of discounted products, even though these are still perfectly fine for consumption and more affordable.
Do you see any changes in consumer choices?
When it comes to healthier and more eco-friendly choices, consumers are making more informed choices every day. People are certainly more accepting of innovative products than they were, for example, 10 years ago.
We have noticed the importance of how products are presented to customers. Our favourite example is the ‘Megavegan salad’. One of our salads previously had this name, and customers expressed no interest in buying the salad. We decided to change the name to ‘Lentil salad with sweet potato cream’ and the sales skyrocketed. It is now a favourite salad of many of our customers.
So awareness is one thing, but actual consumption habits are another – changing them is a slow process.
What do you plan to change in the future to meet your business goals in an even more environmentally conscious manner?
It is important to bring changes to consumers as well. We are currently working on a concept that would make it easier for people to find sustainably manufactured products in the store. We have started reducing the number of products containing palm oil in our assortment and are actively working towards making our product range completely palm oil-free in the future.
Our goal is to make sustainable choices easier and more natural for our customers.
