Still feeling green?

Guardian readers of Islington please get a grip: we can return to saving the planet when this is all over. Working on the basis that you have to save yourself before you can save the planet, most companies are focused on cashflows rather than the cosmos right now. While press releases on all things green continue to darken my doormat, it is clear that the only initiatives that are going to carry any credibility in the boardroom in this economic environment are those that equate directly to cost savings – via a very quick return. It feels as though it is the same for consumers. Research will tell us in time if – in keeping with previous recessions – green issues have for the moment taken a back seat for joe public too. Downturns of the past tell us that when staying in work, maintaining mortgage repayments and putting food on the table become very real issues for consumers, everything else can wait. It is probably the same for wider ethical issues. Perhaps it is why the End of the Line has not had as big an impact as first expected? The film, which The Economist magazine describes as the “inconvenient truth about the oceans”, is based on the eponymous book by Charles Clover about how over-fishing is changing the world and what we eat. The premise of book and documentary is that we are fishing the seas of the world to extinction – there will be nothing left in 40 to 50 years time. Narrated by Ted Danson and beautifully shot, the film is powerful (although I’m told by supply chain experts and restaurant operators that it has more than its fair share of inaccuracies). Perhaps like Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth about the damage carbon emissions are doing to the planet, and Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me addressing the health issues of a diet skewed too much towards fast food, the film will gain greater traction with consumers when it is released on DVD, and circulated to a wider audience. It is required viewing for senior people in the industry. Savvy operators know that the sector has been served notice, and that perhaps because of the timing of its release, people don’t appear to care as much about the issue as one day they might. One day consumers will require total transparency on this subject. The key thing for companies is to stay closely aligned with customers, whether it’s their tastes and preferences, or the wider issues they care about. Green will come back, along with a raft of ethical issues. But only once we’ve saved ourselves. Profits, profits, profits The only green that the City cares about is money. And so it was that interim results from the Restaurant Group (TRG), accompanied by upgrades from a clutch of analysts, were royally welcomed by investors. It’s probably failing grey matter, but I cannot remember any other time when a like-for-like sales decline of 3.5% was meet with such universal approval, the shares climbing 10% – and touching 200p at one point. Of course, it was across-the-board upgrades from analysts that did the trick, with most lifting full-year pre-tax profit expectations from the £35m-mark to about £42m, with some suggesting further upgrades could follow. A stick-to-the-knitting strategy of obsessive cost control and cookie-cutter rollouts that some once considered a bit dull, now looks rather good. The decline in passenger numbers at airports is easing while the company has benefited from its presence next to cinema complexes, which are booming in these recessionary times. The company says it has also managed to avoid the widespread discounting in casual dining, an issue that is exercising the minds of others within the sector.