Summary of Sainsbury’s policies on water, land and carbon
emissions
Sainsbury’s is committed to sourcing our products with integrity and respecting the
environment.
In November 2011 Sainsbury’s set out its 20 by 20 Sustainability Plan consisting of 20
environmental and social commitments to be achieved by 2020. The commitments cover
both Sainsbury’ operations and the supply chain of our own brand products.
The Sustainability Plan can be viewed here:
http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/responsibility/20x20/
And the one year update, published in November 2012, can be viewed here:
http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/media/1377005/jsainsbury_20x20_sustainability_brochure.pdf
Water
With regards to water - Sainsbury’s has committed in its Sustainability Plan that:
“By 2020, through robust water stewardship, we’ll ensure that our supply chain approach is
sustainable in areas of water vulnerability.”
In addition to improving the efficiency of water use in our operations and stores through
water saving measures Sainsbury’s is working in our supply chain to improve the water
efficiency of our suppliers. This includes supporting projects in water vulnerable areas to
address water scarcity and pollution.
Land
With regards to land resource use - Sainsbury’s has committed in its Sustainability Plan that:
“By 2020, we’ll source all of our key raw materials and commodities sustainably to an
independent standard.”
And that:
“By 2020, our own brand products won’t contribute to global deforestation”
Sainsbury’s has identified our key raw materials (which includes palm oil, soya, seafood and
timber) which we will source sustainably to an independent standard. This will ensure that
these raw materials are produced in an ethical and environmental manner which includes,
amongst other things, not contributing towards global deforestation. As part of this
Sainsbury’s is committed to sourcing 100% certified sustainable palm oil by the end of 2014.
Carbon emissions
Sainsbury’s has two commitments in its Sustainability Plan relating to reducing carbon
emissions:
“By 2020, we’ll have reduced our operational carbon emissions by 30 per cent absolute and
65 per cent relative, compared with 2005.”
And:
“By 2020, we’ll have worked with our own brand suppliers to reduce carbon emissions
across all of our own brand products by 50 per cent relative.”
Sainsbury’s is improving the energy efficiency of it stores and is increasing the amount of onsite renewable energy (including solar energy) that it uses. In addition, we are working with
our suppliers to measure their carbon footprint and to reduce their energy use and carbon
emissions.