Britain’s supermarkets are on course to meet their voluntary environmental targets.
New data released by the British Retail Consortium shows that the 25 signatories of the Better Retailing Climate initiative – which includes both food and non-food retailers – have made significant progress in a range of areas.
Since 2005 retailers have:
- Reduced absolute carbon emissions from retail operations by 19% (against a 2020 target of 25%)
- Cut energy-related emissions from buildings by 35% (50% target)
- Reduced greenhouse emissions from refrigeration by 50% (80% target)
- Reduced carbon emissions from store deliveries by 40% (45% target)
Some 91% of sites now measure water usage (100% target), whilst only 4% of waste ends up in landfill (less than 1% target).
The foodservice sector currently has no such benchmarking initiative in place.
