Helping Retailers Gain Control of their Sustainability Goals

Despite Singapore raising the bar for sustainability, with 84% of companies in Singapore now including ESG data in their annual reports–far exceeding the global average of 62%, the rising customer and regulatory expectations are pushing businesses to do more.

Starting in the financial year (FY) of 2025, all listed companies in Singapore must disclose climate-related data aligned with the International Sustainability Standards Board standards, with large non-listed firms to follow by FY2027.

Amid these new measures, businesses will be under increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprint in the coming years.

Ush Shukla

For the retail sector, large companies struggle to meet ESG goals as their supply chains, manufacturing, store operations, and deliveries are hugely vulnerable to disruption. As in so many industries, data silos also hinder productivity, efficiency, and insights.

Traditional systems are not designed to support the open, transparent flow of information, making data inaccessible across the organisation.

The retail industry needs to re-set its approach to data gathering and movement.

Back-end IT architecture can put retail ESG on the front foot

Retailers need an IT architecture that is as event-driven as the external events disrupting their business so that they can collect, analyse, and act on data in real-time.

Every retail transaction generates data – the product purchased, price, customer name, items out for delivery, and on what truck. Software developers call these transactions “events”. Real-time event streaming across an organisation is the fundamental tenet to sustainable success. It provides complete visibility over all stages of the value chain to cut wastage, make sustainability decisions, and not compromise the bottom line.

This applies to stores, IoT applications, eCommerce platforms, warehouses, and HQ – regardless of the system, cloud or protocols involved. The result is a business-wide web of event brokers – or “event mesh” – that is dynamic, simple, and available everywhere, ready to cope with disruptions and ready to ensure ESG commitments are tracked and attained.

By leveraging event-driven architecture (EDA), retailers can take significant strides to proactively address their ESG impact, particularly in three key areas:

Getting to grips with deadheading – Optimising transportation/emissions

Southeast Asia’s e-commerce retail sector is thriving, but the region’s digital economy is expected to double its greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 – a startling environmental cost.

There are ample opportunities for such businesses to improve, like leveraging real-time data to reduce transportation emissions and route efficiency, especially for cross-border and same-day deliveries reliant on fuel-heavy trucks.

From an immediate perspective: sensors on trucks and ocean-bound vessels can monitor fuel emissions, which then get uploaded to the Cloud. Connected applications using EDA will monitor and analyse this data to identify the “greenest route” – faster, more efficient, and cost-saving, while reducing emissions.

However, a fleet-wide approach for stocking and route planning – coupled with siloed data streaming – makes it difficult for retailers to get a holistic view of their eco output across the supply chain.

Better Control Over Scheduling and Stocking – From Every Journey Upwards

Here’s the alternative scenario: by event-enabling their entire delivery operation, retailers can track every truck in real-time, check regional stock availability, and model alternative scenarios to fulfil orders through other viable routes or delivery mechanisms.

This ability to re-route on the fly is the key missing ingredient to fulfilling both ESG and customer expectations. In other words, with EDA, retailers can leverage up-to-date data to make smarter scheduling decisions and quickly adapt to supply and demand changes.

Food waste control – Inside and outside the store

Perishable products are on the clock from the moment they enter the retail value chain. The introduction of e-price tags has helped grocers adjust prices on the fly and monitor their inventory more effectively, optimising sales, and reducing goods wasted on shelves.

But monitoring stock in “batches” limits actionability. What if we could monitor inventory at the precise item level? Modern RFID chips now provide granular data about each item – when it was shipped, received, restocked, and how long it’s been on the shelves. This real-time information, if harvested properly, can allow grocers to implement measures like timed price reductions to minimise waste and safeguard profitability by maintaining a perpetual “state of freshness”.

Addressing Overstocking at the Source

From a broader supply chain and inventory management perspective, access to real-time, granular data, can also optimise ordering patterns, ensuring stores stock the right amount to meet consumers’ needs.

For example, mandarin orange sales may skyrocket during the Lunar New Year festive season but drop once celebrations are over. Adjusting order patterns accordingly will help mitigate stock waste. These insights also extend upstream in the supply chain, helping suppliers optimise production – for instance, assisting farmers plan how much to grow and when, so they avoid oversupply and waste.

Greener retail buildings – Action now

With grocers having a wide physical store footprint nationwide, there are direct opportunities to reduce in-store emissions from an energy and utilities perspective. Refrigeration in stores is a particular emissions concern requiring leak management and, in extreme cases, system overhauls. So, there are big gains for large-scale physical retailers to monitor cooling/heating/electricity levels in real-time and adjust accordingly for optimal usage.

The vision for the future

But today, stores can’t do this at a granular level. In the future, we see a world where you can pre-emptively adjust a store’s “climate” based on weather, customer traffic, and other factors to reduce emissions and minimise carbon footprint.

Longer-term, real-time insights can monitor building health and track real-time emissions against goals, enabling data-driven adjustments. EDA and agentic AI will play a significant role here in linking key events to deliver the required data insights to achieve this granular performance.

Getting to grips with retail ESG means moving in real-time

With the Singapore 2025 Budget introducing ESG support through initiatives like the Heavy Vehicle Zero Emissions Scheme and an electric heavy vehicle charger grant aimed at reducing carbon emissions generated by the transport sector, retailers now have a timely opportunity to strengthen their ESG efforts. As mandatory ESG reporting reshapes the business landscape, firms – large and small – must align with sustainability standards, turning compliance challenges into strategic advantages.

This is where a robust IT foundation, underpinned by EDA that enables real-time event streaming across all channels is critical for spearheading businesses’ ESG efforts.

Ush Shukla is Director, Solution Engineering at Solace