Emissions

Climate change is the biggest environmental challenge we face today. Rising global temperatures will cause sea levels to rise, weather patterns to change, and will lead to an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.

Rising temperatures can mean increased rainfall, storms and floods.

We in the UK will feel the effects, but the most severe problems will be in regions where people are already particularly vulnerable - like those impacted by droughts in sub-Saharan Africa and floods on the Ganges delta in Bangladesh. We believe we must act now to combat climate change by reducing our contribution to its causes.

The climate change challenge

Temperatures are rising and other climate effects such as an increase in rainfall and more frequent weather events like floods and droughts are being felt across our planet, making climate change the biggest environmental concern we live with today. The reason for this is the increase in carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, much of which is a result of burning fossil fuels for energy and increased deforestation for agriculture. Although the effects of climate change are unpredictable and we still have a limited understanding of the complexities of our climate, the message is clear: we must do everything we can to avoid further changes.

The Partnership is committed to developing policies and initiatives to support the UK Government's target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, and the EU's commitment, agreed at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020. As a consumer-facing organisation and an employer we can also play an important part in raising awareness and understanding with our customers and our Partners.

Our commitment

We have already made significant cuts in our emissions relative to the size and growth of our business by achieving a 33 per cent reduction per £million sales since 2001. Earlier this year we set a target to achieve a 15 per cent absolute reduction in our operational CO₂e emissions by the end of our 2020/21 trading year, against a baseline of 2010/11. View our baseline emissions data.

This commitment is supported by a range of initiatives and targets covering our emissions from refrigeration, transport, waste and water. Partners across our business continue to work with suppliers to develop some groundbreaking applications of new technology to make our carbon reduction aspirations possible. For example, at Waitrose East Cowes we are building an energy centre to power the branch using renewable energy and new fuel technologies are being trialled in transport.

We have placed importance and focus first and foremost on setting out a challenging long-term approach for our own operations and looking at where we have the most influence as a business. We recognise the scale of the emissions that lie outside this boundary and will be reviewing our activities that relate to our supply chains and consumer impacts, plus our climate change adaptation strategy, over the coming months and years.

Find out about how we are:

Engaging with others

We recognise that we can't tackle the challenges in this area in isolation. We work with a wide range of organisations through strategic partnerships and alliances, and support a number of independent campaigns and initiatives. We support campaigns such as the Prince's Rainforests Project (PRP) which was set up by HRH The Prince of Wales and seeks to 'make rainforests worth more alive than dead'. The PRP team works with Governments, businesses and non-profit organisations to find solutions to deforestation. The PRP highlights the role businesses are playing and The Prince's Rainforests Project website (www.rainforestsSOS.org) includes a variety of film clips of corporate leaders and famous faces talking about climate change and deforestation including our Chairman, Charlie Mayfield.

Product carbon footprinting and labelling

We are aware of the impact associated with the carbon dioxide emitted during the production, distribution and consumption of products and we recognise the importance of our responsibility to mobilise others in actions that lower the impact associated with these emissions.

The Partnership was involved in the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) working group on carbon footprinting for the food and grocery sector. This group fed in to the British Standards Institute (BSI) group that worked with the Carbon Trust and Defra to establish standards for calculating a product's or service's total carbon footprint from source to store.

Carbon footprinting of 50 fruit, vegetable and horticulture products has been completed and all our Waitrose produce suppliers have committed to using data from a number of carbon lifecycle assessments that have been co-funded by Waitrose, Bangor University and relevant suppliers. We are focusing on work that will make future audits more detailed and easy to access by both suppliers and growers. This will enable us to establish reduction targets and draw up policy objectives across a wider group of products in the future.

Our plans/key priorities

Continue to monitor our performance and progress on meeting and exceeding our specific targets on operational emissions, waste, recycling, refrigeration and transport.
Continue to measure and explore indirect emission impacts, including those embedded in products or associated with Partner and customer transport.

Articles
We believe it is important to take a stand on issues that matter: read our articles here.
CSR reports
Our CSR performance is publicly reported. Read our current and past reports.