Words by Smiley Team
Convenient and offering a huge variety, supermarkets are where the majority of people still buy their groceries. But with the transportation, refrigeration and packaging involved, they have a major impact on the environment.
Their sheer size and sales volume make them a significant player in tackling the climate crisis. How products are sourced, priced and labelled changes so much about their environmental impact. And some supermarkets are doing better than others.
Digging into the details of how different supermarkets operate, consumer monitoring platform Which? has uncovered some of the best actors leading the way in terms of sustainability.
Here are the top five:
Founded in Germany, Lidl upholds that typical Germanic environmentalism with the best score for greenhouse gas emissions out of all the supermarkets investigated at 25 (the maximum score). It also does relatively well on minimising plastic waste with a score of 9.5 out of 12. The only area it falls short is on food waste, for which it received a score of 2 out of 11.
Overall score: 74%
At the higher end of the market, Waitrose has long been strong on sustainability. The supermarket scored 17 out of 25 for its greenhouse gas emissions. It performs much better than Lidl on plastic and food waste scoring 10.5 out of 12 and 8 out of 11 respectively.
Overall score: 74%
A much cheaper shopping option, Asda, comes in third place. It scored 19 out of 25 for greenhouse gas emissions, 7 out of 12 for plastic and 8 out of 11 for food waste.
Overall score: 71%
Sainsbury’s actually performs better for greenhouse gas emissions, scoring 19 out of 25. However, it is lagging when it comes to plastic (8.5 out of 12) and food waste (6 out of 11), which brings it into fourth place.
Overall score: 71%
Finally, Tesco scored pretty well across all areas. It scored 18 out of 25 for emissions, 6 out of 12 for plastic and 9 out of 11 for tackling food waste.
Overall score: 69%
However, all the supermarkets on this list continue to offer plastic bags as an option and packaging much of their products in plastic. In the UK supermarkets create about 900,000 tonnes of plastic packaging a year, according to Greenpeace, which goes from landfill into the surrounding environment and oceans. While a few supermarkets are planning plastic reduction strategies, there is scope for much greater ambition.
“By ditching plastic packaging, supermarkets have the power to lead the way in dramatically reducing the amount of single-use plastic produced,” writes Greenpeace.
SIGN THE PETITION: Help Greenpeace urge supermarkets across the UK to ditch plastic for good, by signing the petition to end supermarket plastic waste.
DONATE: Support campaigners to tackle plastic pollution through protest actions and investigations, by donating to Greenpeace.
