Biodiversity
As a species we continue to over-exploit natural resources, destroy ecosystems and contribute to biodiversity loss. Our Partnership is committed to protecting and enhancing biodiversity and to reversing existing negative effects.
Our Plan
Whilst protecting and enhancing biodiversity has always been important to our Partnership, through our new ‘Plan for Nature’ we’re making five bold new commitments:
- We will invest £2 million to fund ecosystem protection and regeneration projects in two key sourcing regions for Waitrose and John Lewis.
- We commit to zero deforestation in the sourcing of key commodities across Waitrose and John Lewis own- brand product supply chains.
- We will provide funding for sustainable water management programmes in three key fresh-produce sourcing areas.
- We will aim to incorporate natural elements and design principles into all key new build and renovation projects.
- We will reduce our GHG emissions across our farm at Leckford with the aim to be net zero at Leckford ahead of our wider 2035 commitment.
You can find more detail on these commitments and more in ‘Our Plan for Nature’.
The Waitrose Agriculture Plan also sets our commitment to farm with nature, enhance biodiversity, and regenerate the natural resources we rely on.
Our progress to date includes:
- The delisting of several potentially harmful products across John Lewis and Waitrose including artificial grass and certain garden chemicals including specific bug sprays and weedkillers.
- Our Partnership has stopped selling compost containing peat.
- In 2021, Waitrose became the first major retailer to sign up to The UK Robust Potato Pledge, which will see us move away from the use of copper-based fungicides on our organic fresh potatoes.
- Waitrose signed up to the Courtauld Commitment 2030 Water Ambition, aiming to help the UK food and drink sector improve the quality and availability of water across the 20 most important product and ingredient sourcing regions.
Our Partnership With WWF
Our new Partnership with WWF will fund ecosystem regeneration projects in areas where a number of our suppliers are based. Our aim in Norfolk, a key source of Waitrose meat, cereal and vegetable products, is to show that regenerative agriculture, nature restoration and carbon sequestration are possible even in one of the most intensively farmed areas of the UK. In India, a key source for John Lewis cotton products, we will address water scarcity and water quality in the Noyyal and Bhavani river basins. As well as harbouring unique wildlife upstream, the rivers enable agricultural and industrial activity downstream. We will be sharing the results and findings of these projects as widely as possible, to encourage collaboration and help create lasting, meaningful change in these environments and beyond.
WWF Basket
Our new partnership builds on existing work with WWF. In 2021, Waitrose signed WWF’s Retailers’ Commitment for Nature alongside four other UK supermarkets. As part of this industry collaboration, we share an ambition to halve the environmental footprint of a UK shopping basket by 2030. Success will be measured annually by WWF against metrics linked to climate, deforestation, nature, packaging, food waste and more. The signatories commit to report performance annually to WWF against these metrics and publicly report on the actions taken.
Science Based Targets For Nature
Our Partnership has signed up as an engagement partner of the Science Based Targets Network. We aim to be amongst the first organisations to set our own science-based targets for nature to ensure that our activity to protect and restore the natural environment is impactful and science-led. We will also support the Task Force for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), building on our ongoing work with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
The Queen’s Green Canopy
Our Partnership is a Platinum Supporter of The Queen’s Green Canopy – a nationwide tree-planting initiative created to mark the Platinum Jubilee and honour Her Majesty. As part of the celebrations, we planted and landscaped an avenue of trees on our Leckford Estate which, together with over 1,000 additional trees of various species, will provide a valuable wildlife habitat. The Queen’s Green Canopy is proud to be creating a legacy with over a million trees planted in Her Majesty’s name across the nation.
Case Study
Nature-based farming benefits rare birds
The rare stone-curlew visits the UK in spring and summer, but by nesting in well-grazed grassland and arable fields it is vulnerable to farm operations.
Thanks to careful management involving leaving fallow areas in-field, our Leckford farming team was thrilled to see the estate’s first stone-curlew chicks fledge this year.
Protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act and Amber listed in UK Birds of Conservation Concern, the stone-curlew is a rare sight in the UK, visiting in the warmer months to breed.
The mottled brown bird with long yellow legs and distinctive large yellow eyes that help it forage in twilight has experienced a steep population decline: in the 1980s, there were only around 100 pairs remaining.
Fortunately, concerted conservation efforts, such as those at Leckford, have seen stone-curlew numbers begin to rise again, with the current UK population estimated at around 400 pairs.
Supported by the estate’s Countryside Stewardship agreement, we are creating nesting habitats for a wide variety of farmland birds.
While many nest in hedgerows and grass margins, some, like the stone curlew, favour nesting in fields.
To protect these ground-nesting birds, we purposely leave several hectares of land in the middle of some cereal fields as uncropped fallow. This bare ground offers nest sites, and the naturally regenerated vegetation provides access to small invertebrates for feeding chicks.
Stone-curlews have been recorded at Leckford since 2013, but we have never observed successful breeding – until this year.
With continued careful management by the farming team and additional monitoring established by the estate’s Biodiversity Officer and local RSPB volunteers, we know that a pair of stone curlews raised two chicks in one of our fallow plots.
As adult birds tend to be faithful to their breeding site, we will maintain and manage that fallow plot to the same high standard in the hope that the pair return and breed again next year.
"Nature-friendly farming is vital for conserving stone curlews. Thanks to partnerships between farms like Leckford, dedicated RSPB conservation staff and teams of volunteers, breeding numbers in the UK have recovered to around 400 pairs, helping to ensure this elusive and charismatic bird can co-exist sustainably alongside food production."
Heather Dixon
Conservation Officer, RSPB