Addressing climate change is of critical importance to our business, and to economies both local and global, so we have set ourselves ambitious, but we believe achievable, emissions reduction goals as part of our Sustainability Plan 2025.
We will reduce our scope 1 and 2 emissions by 63 percent from our 2015 baseline by 2030 – this represents our direct operational emissions and our emissions from electricity use. This target has been ratified by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), an independent global body formed by the United Nations Global Compact, CDP, the World Resources Institute and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature.
The SBTi assesses and approves companies’ targets through a scientific lens, ensuring alignment with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting climate change to an increase of 1.5 degrees above pre‑industrial levels.
To achieve this target globally, it is forecast that net positive carbon emissions will be required. This is why we have set our 2050 (or earlier) goal, encompassing scope 1 and 2 emissions, to go beyond net zero.
Our ambition is to remove more emissions from the atmosphere than we are responsible for. Our strategies to achieve this will continue to evolve over this time horizon and will be communicated in our sustainability updates and annual reports.
Acknowledging our significant footprint across Australia and New Zealand, we are taking an end-to-end approach to decarbonisation, which informs our management of climate risks and opportunities to mitigate.
Scope 1 and 2 emissions are those directly within our operational control. Our material scope 1 emissions sources include fugitive synthetic refrigerants, transport fuel for our fleet cars and home delivery trucks, and natural gas. Our scope 2 emissions are those associated with electricity use across all stores, distribution centres and offices. Scope 2 electricity emissions make up the largest part of our operational footprint.
Woolworths Group is currently committed to achieving a 63% reduction in emissions from our operations by 2030. Our F22 emissions of 2.01 million tonnes CO2e are 31% below our 2015 baseline.
The majority of Woolworths Group’s emissions are generated within our value chain - from agriculture, the production of raw materials, manufacturing of products, and transporting finished products to our distribution centres and stores. These scope 3 value chain emissions are calculated to be approximately 14 times greater than both our scope 1 and 2 emissions combined. We acknowledge the scale of this challenge, and in F22 improved our measurement of emissions across our entire value.
We are currently committed to achieving a 19% reduction in value chain emissions by 2030. We are approaching how we achieve this target systematically - first seeking to understand the areas in which our scope 3 footprint is concentrated. Splitting this by product category enables us to prioritise our work in areas where we believe there is the greatest potential for material emissions reduction.
In partnership with our suppliers, industry and government, we intend to identify short-term opportunities for addition across the value chain, and those requiring additional support and innovative solutions over the longer term. This understanding will form the basis of our value chain emissions reduction strategy.
Read more about our emissions reductions emissions in our Sustainability Report.