Åsa Domeij is Head of Environmental Affairs at Axfood. With her degree in agricultural sciences, many years’ experience in environmental issues and huge commitment, Åsa addresses current issues in the industry.

Ahead of Durban

Posted date: 3 November 2011  0 Comments

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The next round of international climate negotiations is almost upon us, this time in Durban, South Africa. The climate network known as the Haga Initiative, of which Axfood is a member, organised its own conference ahead of the negotiations. The question is whether politicians are perhaps underestimating the willingness of voters to accept an active climate policy. There may not be support for ...

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When will we see a burger for the semi-vegetarian?

Posted date: 1 September 2011  0 Comments

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A few days ago the Gothenburg newspaper Göteborgsposten published a burger test. The focus was not on what the burgers tasted like, but on how much meat they contained and what consumers were paying for the meat. The burgers in the test contained between 80% and 99% meat. What was not meat varied from burger to burger. Water was a common ingredient, but there was also potato, sugar beet pu...

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Is it up to young people to fix the environment?

Posted date: 15 July 2011  0 Comments

Some weeks ago I attended two environmental seminars. One was a major conference at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm: ‘The Stockholm Dialogue on Global Sustainability’. ‘The Stockholm Dialogue’ included many interesting contributions and reflections on the world’s considerable sustainability issues. But, as so often happens in the environmental field, the discussions frequently focu...

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What are we doing about wastage?

Posted date: 4 July 2011  0 Comments

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A question has come in about what we’re doing to tackle the issue of food wastage in our stores. Food wastage is a major environmental issue, since so many resources have been invested in the food by the time it reaches our shelves. If it is not used, the food has affected the environment unnecessarily. All Axfood’s chains (e.g. Willys and Hemköp) have targets to work towards when it comes to w...

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Dagab a Climate Comet!

Posted date: 28 June 2011  0 Comments

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It is not exactly common to receive two environmental awards in one week. But that’s what happened to Dagab this week. Dagab is the company that deals with warehousing and distribution for Willys, Hemköp and others. The one award was Green Cargo’s ‘Climate Comet of the Year’ which focuses on the reduced carbon emissions from Dagab’s transport. Above all, the jury highlighted the rise in the use...

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Hemköp’s green bag

Posted date: 25 March 2011  1 Comments

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Hemköp has launched a green carrier bag that is now available in store. It is actually the first bag on the Swedish market to be made entirely from bio-based raw materials rather than plastics based on fossil fuels. It can also be disposed of by sending it for material recycling together with fossil plastics. Hopefully, many customers will use the bags numerous times until they wear out, and th...

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First products in the carbon-offset range

Posted date: 3 March 2011  0 Comments

Willys and Hemköp have now launched a new eco-range called ‘Garant Såklart’. The first products belong to the toiletries/cosmetics category, with products such as shampoo, conditioner and skin cream. The idea of the assortment is to join forces with suppliers to develop products that are environmentally sound, allergy-safe and work well. The products therefore carry both the Nordic Swan ecolabe...

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Do we really need so many till receipts?

Posted date: 21 February 2011  0 Comments

We have just completed a number of training days with environmental coordinators in Willys stores. The days were intensive and fun, with the main focus of debate on practical environmental work in the stores, such as waste management. On one of the training days, thoughts turned to whether we really need so many till receipts. The discussion started with Bisphenol A in the till receipts, an iss...

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Many people like locally-produced food

Posted date: 10 January 2011  0 Comments

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Jenny contacted the blog and requested more locally-produced food in the shops. I believe many more people than Jenny are of the same opinion. One reason why the introduction of more locally-produced food has not been faster is that transport from the small producers is not always an easy problem to solve. It is also important that transport is environmentally sound. One important reason for ma...

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Why sell halal chicken?

Posted date: 3 January 2011  0 Comments

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I was asked on the blog about why Axfood sells halal chicken. The simple reason is that there is demand. Some people believe that slaughtering chickens according to halal principles is worse from an animal protection perspective, but that is not true. The regulatory framework includes, for example, facing Mecca and ensuring that there is access to religious staff.

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