The UK’s biggest supermarkets are “failing against their own environmental promises”, new research has claimed.
Extensive analysis of the past decade by The Food Foundation and charity Feedback Global showed that 600 sustainability commitments were set by the top 10 major retailers between 2014 and 2024 – around one commitment every six days – but that they had failed to “provide evidence of sufficient progress or consistent public transparency”.
The research looked at pledges made in relation to climate and emissions, land use and deforestation, and sustainable and healthy diets.
It claimed the sector as a whole had lagged behind on key areas such as greenhouse gas emissions generated in supermarkets’ supply chains, known as Scope 3 emissions, which account for the majority of retailers’ carbon footprints.
For example, while nine out of 10 retailers assessed have set supply chain emissions reduction targets for 2030, only four are publishing UK-specific progress updates – with “only Aldi, Waitrose, Co-op and Morrisons showing progress in the right direction”, The Food Foundation claimed.
Target-setting and reporting was also “highly inconsistent” between retailers – while Co-op set 104 targets, Iceland set only 15.
Lidl GB was the only retailer with a target to increase sales of plant-based protein as a proportion of total protein sales, even though previous figures have showed around half of supermarkets’ overall emissions were linked to meat and dairy sales.
The report also found that of 57 individual retailer commitments on healthy and sustainable diets, only just over half include measurable targets with a target percentage and year. And while best practice was to set volume-based (tonnage) sales targets, only four retailers had done so.
The analysis comes just weeks after a leaked memo from an anonymous group of corporate executives claimed the UK food sector was heading for economic disaster bigger than the pandemic, with companies’ resilience planning based on “wishful thinking” and “false reassurances” to investors.
The group claimed food companies were not acting fast enough against the rapidly growing climate threat and were woefully unprepared for challenges including soil degradation, extreme weather events, global heating and water scarcity.
An investigation by The Grocer last year also found that sustainability efforts in the food industry were dwindling and that companies were on track to miss an array of climate targets.
The retail sector “will have to start being more transparent and disclosing data on key sustainability metrics so they can be held to account on whether they are meeting targets”, The Food Foundation and Feedback argued ahead of key meetings between the government and industry stakeholders to work on its forthcoming food strategy.
Campaigners said it was “high time to level the playing field by requiring all large food businesses to disclose data on key sustainability and health metrics”, which would “lead to measurable targets, rather than ambiguous commitments”.
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Jessica Sinclair Taylor, deputy director at Feedback Global, said: “Supermarkets’ voluntary climate commitments clearly aren’t going to cut it when it comes to climate goals.
“What’s more, retailers themselves privately admit they need government support to level the playing field and reach their goals.
“As the climate and nature crisis gains pace – last year’s harvest was the worst on record – leaving the industry to mark its own copybook simply isn’t good enough.
“We need to see the urgent introduction of mandatory, legally binding standards for all major food businesses when the government publishes its highly anticipated food strategy later this year.”
The government’s top advisors on climate, the Climate Change Committee, warned last week that the food and farming industry were under major threat as the UK was “not prepared” for the climate crisis, with over half of England’s agricultural land now at risk of flooding.
The UK’s recent Carbon Budget also set an explicit target to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by 39% by 2040, including a 27% reduction in cattle and sheep numbers and 25% reduction in all meat consumption by 2040.
Yet retailers “are failing to keep pace, with only just over half of 49 current commitments on healthy and sustainable diets including measurable targets”, campaigners claimed.
They said the UK’s 10 largest supermarkets made up over 90% of the food retail market, “meaning they have a pivotal role in reaching – or jeopardising – climate and biodiversity goals”.
While progress on Scope 3 emissions lags behind, all major retailers have set Scope 1 and 2 emissions targets, according to the research, and are overall on track to meet these on or ahead of time.
Read more: How sustainability efforts in the food industry are going up in flames
This was likely being driven by the increasing number of mandatory corporate reporting directives requiring businesses to publicly disclose data on their environmental impact, researchers noted.
UK companies are already required to disclose their Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in their annual reports, in line with the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting framework.
Rebecca Tobi, Senior business and investor engagement manager at The Food Foundation, said: “We are running out of time to avert the climate crisis and as this research very clearly shows it’s becomingly increasingly obvious that businesses simply can’t do this on their own.
“While all UK supermarkets are signed up to a huge number of commendable schemes working towards net zero and more sustainable diets, we are just not seeing the pace of progress we so urgently need for both people and planet.
“So, it’s critical that the government make sure that the new food strategy ensures mandatory reporting against key health and sustainability metrics and brings in regulation that truly levels the playing field for all food businesses.”
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