An assessment of the Net Zero commitments and plans of the top ten highest revenue global supermarkets and the solutions needed to drive progress across the sector.
Overview
The food system is both a leading cause of climate change, responsible for up to a third of global emissions, and acutely vulnerable to its impacts. Rising global temperatures could render many of our daily essentials unavailable or unaffordable, from potatoes to coffee.
Supermarkets are already feeling these impacts and are key to breaking this vicious cycle, acting as the touchpoint between millions of customers, and thousands of food producers, as well as consumer packaged goods companies.
However, amid complex supply chains, tight profit margins and demand for low-cost food, reaching Net Zero is no mean feat for supermarkets. This report offers sector-specific recommendations to accelerate progress, based on an assessment of the sector’s current Net Zero commitments and plans of the world’s ten largest supermarkets (by revenue) and insights from the broader sector.
Key findings
- Despite an increase in Net Zero target-setting and a growing focus on sustainable agriculture in the past year, there remains a significant gap between the supermarket sector’s progress to date and the transformational change needed to deliver Net Zero.
In particular, three interconnected challenges are holding the sector back:
1. Reducing and measuring emissions from industrial agriculture and deforestation. Food production makes up the bulk of supermarket emissions, but just 4 of the 10 supermarkets assessed have detailed plans for tackling agricultural emissions at the heart of their climate plans. 8 out of the 10 have ambitious targets to eliminate deforestation, but implementation is proving challenging due to transparency and traceability issues.
2. Accessing accurate Scope 3 data. Only half of the supermarkets assessed report emissions from the most material category (purchased goods and services). The difficulty of accessing this data hinders decision-making, target-setting and communicating progress.
3. Encouraging Net Zero-aligned shopping habits. Customer demand for carbon-intensive products and shopping habits which promote waste (such as demand for variety, perfect produce and constant supply) is a barrier to reaching Net Zero. In their public reports, 2 of the 10 supermarkets assessed promote policies and consumption habits they need to reach Net Zero.
- The sector’s biggest challenges are critical opportunities for greater collaboration. The report contains many recommendations for individual supermarkets accelerate progress in their transition to Net Zero, but these system-wide challenges require a different approach. As the majority of supermarkets’ emissions lie outside of their direct control, collaborating with food producers and suppliers is the only way for supermarkets to get a clear picture of their supply chains and scale sustainable production methods. Pre-competitive collaboration between supermarkets is also vital, to streamline efforts, level the playing field and develop a strong, collective voice needed to shape policy and consumer decisions.
Read the report to learn how supermarkets are performing on seven key aspects of a robust Net Zero plan, and how they can overcome key barriers.
