The British Retail Consortium BRC has said that UK retailers are on course to meet “ambitious” voluntary targets to reduce the direct environmental impact of their operations.
In a progress update to its report a Better Retailing Climate (ABRC) released today, the BRC said that retailers are working in partnership with suppliers and customers more than ever to lower energy usage in buildings, cut emissions from refrigeration, divert waste from landfill and report on food waste.
Last year the participants in ABRC, who include Britain's leading retailers, agreed on a new range of targets to be met by 2020 after meeting original targets. Today's report highlights progress made against those targets to date by retailers including a 13% reduction in carbon emissions from retail operations and store deliveries against a target of 25% and 45% respectively by 2020.
BRC Director of food and sustainability Andrew Opie said: "Retailers continue to lead the way in reducing the impact of the products they sell and adapting to the challenges of climate change. This shows we can meet the ambitious targets to reduce environmental impact by 2020 when we invest in our supply chain and work closely with consumers."
In an industry first earlier this month the BRC published food waste figures for the retail industry which showed that retailers are responsible for just 1.3% of all food wasted along the food chain, with the majority coming from within the household.
The BRC said that today's progress report provides “concrete examples” of supermarket initiatives to help their customers reduce food waste in the home such as consumer campaigns to raise awareness of the impact of food waste, offering tips on storage and making better use of leftovers and trialling innovative packaging solutions to increase the shelf life of a product.
