Supermarkets pledge to halve environmental impact of weekly shop
Five of the biggest supermarkets in UK have promised to cut in half the environmental impact of a weekly food shop by 2030.
Tesco, Sainsburys, Waitrose, Co-op, and M&S have pledged to reduce carbon emissions, deforestation, food waste and packaging they produce.
They will work with environmental organisation WWF to halve the amount of global warming that shopping baskets cause, halve the forests that are cut down to fill the baskets, and halve the impact of the agriculture and seafood.
Collectively, the five supermarkets represent over half the UK’s food shoppers.
In a joint statement, the chief executives of the supermarkets said: “We recognise that a future without nature is a future without food. By 2030 we need to halt the loss of nature.”
Every year, they will submit data to WWF and publish their actions.
The shops also agreed to set science-based targets by the end of next year to prevent temperatures increasing by more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
Tanya Steele, WWF’s chief executive, described the promises as “game changing” and pushed for more retailers to “follow in their footsteps”.
Over 25 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, forestry and land usage required by the food industry.
Each year, the industry emits 17.3bn tonnes of carbon dioxide – about 19 times more than commercial planes.
It is also responsible for 60 per cent of the global damage to biodiversity.
The announcement follows the UK committing £500m to end deforestation worldwide.