Sainsbury’s will invest £1bn to become carbon-neutral by 2040

The UK supermarket Sainsbury’s has announced that they will be investing £1bn in order to become a net-zero business over the next twenty years. 

According to the supermarket, their current carbon footprint is an estimated one million tonnes of CO2 each year but through this £1bn investment, they will implement a programme of change to drastically reduce this.

The retailer will work with Carbon Trust, who help businesses around the world to contribute to and benefit from a more sustainable future.

Carbon Trust will help the supermarket to set science-based targets and produce a public report on progress every six months.

The supermarket will focus specifically on reducing their greenhouse gas emissions within its own operations through the use of renewable energy, they will also focus on lowering water use, with an aim to become water neutral by 2040.

They will also half their plastic packaging by 2025, and then going further they will increase the amount of packaging that is recycled and they also aim to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030.

Mike Coupe, CEO of Sainsbury’s said: ‘Our commitment has always been to help customers live well for less, but we must recognise that living well now also means living sustainably.

‘We recognise that we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to make the changes needed to help the planet exist sustainably.

‘We have over 27 million customers each week and almost 180,000 colleagues and we hope that we can collaborate across industries and sectors to help create momentum and drive meaningful change.

‘Only when the trajectory for global warming slows down to a maximum of 1.5 degrees will we all know that we can truly live well for less now and in the future.’

Areeba Hamid, a climate campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: ‘Sainsburys’s thinking about its role in the climate emergency we face is a good first step, but any plan that doesn’t cover their supply chain is nowhere near ambitious enough and amounts to offshoring their carbon emissions.

‘Our climate emergency isn’t limited to this country, so the Sainsbury’s net-zero plan must go beyond its UK business.’

Photo Credit – Sainsbury’s