Sustainable Procurement News

Grocery retailer Caprabo has announced that it has set a new goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The retailer has also decided to adhere to the 'Code of Conduct on responsible food business and marketing practices' approved by the European Union last July to achieve this target.

It is an initiative that aims to create a common agenda in the food sector to promote environmental sustainability in the industry as a whole and reduce the environmental impact.

Lidl Ireland & Northern Ireland have announced it is set to become the first large nationwide supermarket to establish a circular economy strategy, helping to 'fuel its logistics chain using food waste from its 209 stores on the island'.

Lidl Ireland & Northern Ireland have announced it is set to become the first large nationwide supermarket to establish a circular economy strategy, helping to 'fuel its logistics chain using food waste from its 209 stores on the island'.

In the Republic, Lidl said it is building on its longstanding partnership with Trim-based Food Surplus Management (FSM), who will collect the retailer’s food waste and customer’s recycling deposits directly from their stores and three regional distribution centres across the region.

The food waste will then be converted to renewable bio-methane and used to fuel the fleet responsible for collecting such waste from Lidl’s stores and regional distribution centres across the country, reducing carbon emission per truck by up to 93%, the discounter said.

Many retail and food giants are proving that businesses can grow, improve margins and bolster competitive advantage through examination of waste streams and investing in creative solutions — even during a pandemic.

Gatik, an autonomous technology company specializing in B2B short-haul logistics — and whose customers include Walmart — has launched a product that could help advance the ongoing electric-vehicle trend in the retail world.

Gatik has announced its electrification strategy with the introduction of the industry’s first Electric Autonomous Box Trucks, according to the company.

For IKEA, that marks the expanded launch of a program to buy back furniture in an effort to curb consumption.

"We don't want to encourage people to overconsume. That's one of the challenges we've identified that we feel like we can make a big impact on within our whole strategy," said Jenn Keesson, sustainability manager at IKEA U.S. 

As part of the program, the home furnishings company, widely known for its flat-pack packaging and ready-to-assemble furniture, will be taking back a range of IKEA products: bookcases and shelf units; small tables; chairs and stools without upholstery; and chests of drawers. When a customer returns an item, they’ll receive a voucher to use for future purchases. If IKEA can't resell an item, the company plans to recycle it or donate it to community organizations. 

The effort, which will be running in 27 countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia are on the list), is temporary for now, running from Nov. 24 through Dec. 3. But it is part of a larger circular approach being pioneered by the company. 

More than 60 retailers, including Burberry, Missguided, ASOS and Primark have pledged to support the British Retail Consortium's Climate Action Roadmap which sets a target of net-zero emissions by 2040.

The BRC's roadmap applies to the sector's direct operations and its entire global supply chain, and includes decarbonising stores by 2030, deliveries by 2035 and products by 2040.

Outlined at the UNFCCC Race to Zero Dialogues online event today (10 November), the Climate Action Roadmap includes plans to reduce emissions from shops and distribution centres, create net-zero logistics operations, increase sustainable sourcing for products, and help customers and employees reduce emissions.

Spar International has announced a partnership with Too Good To Go, which will see the Danish social impact firm team up with the retailer on measures to tackle food waste in a number of markets.

As part of the partnership, shoppers can use the Too Good To Go app to avail of discount offers on products that would otherwise go to waste, at their local Spar outlets.

These Spar Too Good To Go food packages, named ‘Magic Bags’ on the app, consist principally of fresh food products, including vegetables, fruit, dairy products, baked goods and other items from the Spar range.

Indian workers in factories supplying the supermarket chains Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury's, and the fashion brand Ralph Lauren, told the BBC they are being subjected to exploitative conditions.

Women working at a Ralph Lauren supplier said they had been forced to stay overnight to complete orders, sometimes requiring them to sleep on the factory floor.

"We're made to work continuously, often through the night, sleeping at 3am then waking up by 5am for another full day," one woman said in an interview. "Our bosses don't care. They're only bothered about production," she said.

The BBC has withheld the names of those who agreed to be interviewed, as well as the names of the factories, to protect the workers' safety.

Aldi UK has announced plans to introduce 100% recyclable packaging for its private label cereals by the end of this year.

The move will see the retailer replace the plastic inner bags containing cereals with a recyclable alternative.

Plastics and packaging director at Aldi, Chris McKenry, said, “Making such a popular product range fully recyclable will have a huge positive impact.

“Our focus is to offer quality at the lowest price on the market, and we believe that means more than simply offering great products – we have to provide customers with environmentally-sustainable options they can afford too.”

Ahold Delhaize USA, the parent company of Food Lion, Giant Food, The Giant Co., Hannaford, and Stop & Shop, has adopted new sustainability policies for genetically modified food (GMOs) and farm animal welfare.

“At Ahold Delhaize USA, we strive to have local impact with a greater purpose in all that we do,” noted Ahold Delhaize USA CEO Kevin Holt. “Each of our local brands recognizes the great responsibility they have to advance sustainability initiatives in their local communities and nourish customers in a way that is transparent and sustainable. In addition, our East Coast presence enables our brands to make a real and positive impact in the communities they serve. The addition of these policies furthers the brands’ commitments to provide nutritious, transparent products that meet customers’ preferences and lifestyles.”

Walmart Inc. plans to make gains toward its sustainability goals by introducing new transparency to its beef supply chain.

What the chain called its new aspirations about how it gets its beef are part of Walmart’s larger objectives for sourcing 20 key commodities more sustainably by 2025. Walmart said that it's encouraging its beef suppliers to continuously improve their efforts in understanding the entire beef production cycle, from farm to fork. 

Lidl has unveiled plans to roll out a new traffic light labelling system in key categories for sustainability across its 105 Scottish stores from September. 

As one of the UK’s first retailers to launch the trial, Lidl will apply "Eco-Score" labelling to over 50 of its own-label products including teas, coffees and hot chocolate as well as supporting this with wider communication in its stores. 

Eco-Score uses open-source data to independently grade products on their sustainability credentials and assigns a colour code ranging from green A - low impact - to red E - high impact.

Shoppers don't trust the sustainability credentials being provided by the food industry, a new European survey shows.

The EIT Food-funded TrustTracker project surveyed more than 19,800 people from 18 countries across Europe about trust in the food sector and its various aspects. The latest TrustTracker survey which took place during 2020 showed that farmers and food retailers scored highest among parts of the food sector, with farmers once again scoring highest across all European countries. The findings also showed that food retailers improved their trust scores during the pandemic as they managed to keep up with demand from shoppers.

Among the new evidence found in the latest report, consumers were asked about trust about food features such as the safety, healthiness and sustainability of food items.

Supply chain compliance and quality management technology solution provider ReposiTrak Inc. is bringing suppliers and food retailers together with the Food Traceability Leadership Consortium (FTLC) to better prepare for upcoming food safety regulations. Retail industry leaders will collaborate on the development of open, low-cost, easy-to-use food-tracing technology to improve foodborne illness outbreak response and recall protocols.

Unilever North America announced today a $15 million investment in Closed Loop Partners’ Leadership Fund to help recycle an estimated 60,000 metric tons of U.S. plastic packaging waste annually by 2025, an amount equivalent to more than half of Unilever’s plastics footprint in North America.

Aldi has notched another big environmental milestone in its efforts toward becoming a more sustainable retailer.

The grocer has completed installation of its first company wind turbine at its warehouse in Dwight, Illinois. After breaking ground last summer, the wind turbine was recently activated and will power up to 40% of the warehouse’s total energy needs, reducing the amount of grey electricity consumed from the grid and replacing it with green electricity. 

HowGood, an SaaS data platform for the food and personal care industries, has raised a $6 million investment round in its mission to help retailers and investors deepen their environmental and social impact to attract the growing number of eco-conscious consumers.

The power of the right sustainability messaging

The Climate Pledge Friendly program presents a special label to consumers when searching for more than 25,000 products on Amazon’s site. The label signifies that the products have earned one or more of 19 sustainability certifications created by the online giant.

Another approach to helping virtual buyers make greener purchasing choices is providing more delivery options at the point of sale. The arms race among leading e-commerce retailers to offer ever-faster delivery is environmentally harmful. As delivery times are reduced to one-day and same-day windows, it becomes increasingly challenging to consolidate packages and the number of addresses on delivery routes. Less consolidation translates into larger carbon footprints.

Sellers argue that they are merely meeting customer demand for faster deliveries regardless of the environmental cost — but is this the case? To find out, we conducted research in collaboration with Coppel, one of Mexico’s leading retailers with some 1,400 stores across the country and outreach of 45,000 home deliveries per day.

70% of the consumers surveyed were willing to delay home deliveries by about 5 days if given an environmental incentive to do so at the time of purchase.

Retailer Marks & Spencer is relaunching its Plan A eco and ethical programme, saying the time has come to reinvigorate the initiative and return it to the "centre of the customer story."

Plan A launched in 2007, and since then has delivered 296 eco and ethical commitments, won 240 awards, and saved more than GBP750m in costs through efficiencies such as using less energy, fewer transport miles and reducing packaging.

As part of its initial Plan A, M&S also pledged to source 25% of its cotton more sustainably by 2015 and 50% more sustainably by 2020. Initially it started sourcing fair trade, organic and recycled, but it was able to scale and accelerate its sustainable cotton uptake thanks to the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). In spring/summer 2019, in clothing, it sourced 100% of cotton sustainably.

Nestlé International Travel Retail (NITR) is looking ahead to a post-Covid world where environmental issues and sustainability will again become the most critical discussion topic.

NITR, which will be sponsor the TR Sustainability Forum page in the December edition of TRBusiness and support this with an online campaign, says brands have no option but to be sustainable. Brands have a duty to the planet, customers and shareholders, according to the company.

This is highlighted by m1nd-set research, which indicates that 84% of travel retail and duty free shoppers (91% of millennials) think that a greater focus on sustainability by manufacturers has a positive impact on their perception of the brand.

The research also indicates that 72% of travel retail and duty free shoppers (78% of millennials) think that a greater focus on sustainability by manufacturers increases the likelihood of purchasing a brand.

From a food and confectionery perspective, 56% of those surveyed say they will actively look for more sustainable/environmentally friendly products when shopping at the airport. This is higher than the overall average of 43%.

Britain’s leading supermarkets and fast food outlets are selling chicken fed on soya that has been linked to vast deforestation and thousands of fires across a vital region of tropical woodland in Brazil, an investigation has revealed. 

Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Nando’s, and McDonald’s source chicken produced in the UK by the agribusiness giant Cargill – America’s second biggest private company. It is estimated that Cargill ships more than 100,000 tonnes of soybeans to the UK every year from Brazil’s threatened Cerrado savannah.

Though less well known than the Amazon rainforest to its north, the Cerrado is an enormous natural biome, covering two million sq km of land. It is a major habitat for wildlife – home to 5% of the world’s plant and animal species – and a critical region for tackling climate change. It is also under increasing threat from industrial food production. 

An investigation by Unearthed and a coalition of reporting partners has revealed the complex supply chains that bring this soya to the UK – much of it from the deforestation hotspot of the Cerrado, where allegations of land-grabbing, violence, and deforestation have been rife.

Giant Food has joined the Ocean Disclosure Project (ODP), meaning the grocer will now voluntarily share insight into their sourcing methods to ensure sustainable seafood practices. Giant says its sustainable seafood policy has always ensured that every seafood item sold in stores meets sustainability criteria, but this will take it one step further by making the information readily available to the public. 

Chipotle has launched a sustainability and transparency tool for consumers — the latest effort from foodservice providers and food retailers to appeal to environmentally-focused consumers.

The retailer describes its new Real Foodprint tool as a sustainability impact tracker that compares average values for each of Chipotle's 53 real ingredients to their conventional counterparts against five (5) key metrics:

- Less carbon in the atmosphere (measured in grams).
- Gallons of water saved.
- Improved Soil Health (measured in square feet).
- Organic Land Supported (measured in square feet).
- Antibiotics Avoided (measured in milligrams)