APTRA launches new sustainability drive
Designed as an educational tool, the new APTRA Sustainability Report will be released twice-yearly to highlight susatinabilty issues on the regulatory TR landscape
APTRA (Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association) announces the launch of a new sustainability drive to support its members in this area of growing importance to all businesses in travel retail.
A new, twice-yearly APTRA Sustainability Report is designed as an education tool, highlighting key sustainability issues on the regulatory landscape that may impact business in the region. Governments across Asia Pacific are increasingly moving toward legislative requirements that may impact business operations for airports, retailers, brands and F&B operators.
The report measures regulations on their threat levels according to a four-point system:
1. Agenda Building
2. Policy Formulation
3. Policy Adoption
4. Policy Implementation.
Each represents a stage of policy development to help the industry determine the most appropriate response based on regulatory timescales.
Among the most pressing issues are the ban on single-use plastics (SUP), charges for plastic bag usage and mandatory packaging reporting.
Key examples include:
In Australia, New South Wales will ban Single Use Plastic (SUP) nationwide on 1 June 2022 with Western Australia already leading the charge with a phase-out of single use plastics effective 1 January 2022 as part of the state’s two-phase Plan For Plastics program, to be implemented by the end of 2023. This sits within the Australian government’s National Plastics Plan targets a phase-out of SUPs by 2025.
New Zealand announced it will phase out SUPs between 2022 – 2025.
Japan has implemented a charge on plastic utensils and straws beginning this month, while Singapore has introduced mandatory packaging reporting, requiring retailers to report annually the volume of packaging they plan to introduce into the country together along with reporting their own policies to reduce, reuse or recycle packaging.
“With over 45 diverse governments operating individually across Asia Pacific, keeping up with multiple sustainability requirements is an onerous task for any business. Organisations are at very different stages on their sustainability journey and, APTRA’s goal, more than ever, is to help facilitate industry recovery by providing valuable, practical advice, insights and resource to our members. The new APTRA Sustainability Report is the latest such service we are offering our members,” says Sunil Tuli, President, APTRA.
To facilitate greater dialogue regarding the challenges and opportunities related to sustainability, APTRA has also created a Sustainability Committee composed of retailers, brands, airports and F&B operators. The committee is chaired by ARI Chief Operations and Business Development Officer, Nuno Amaral, and includes Auckland Airport, Pernod Ricard, Changi Airport, Gebr. Heinemann and SSP. Its role is to support APTRA members with optimal, commercially valuable insight, share learnings from members and to encourage best practice.
APTRA will host a sustainability-focused panel during the APTRA Exchange on 10 May 2022, 4-6pm as part of the TFWA Program in Singapore.
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