Swedish retailer ICA Gruppen has announced that its greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 36% during the period April 2016 to March 2017.
In the company's Sustainability Report for the first quarter of 2017, it said that emissions are forecast to drop a further 30% (approximately) by the year 2020, based off current performance.
Per Strömberg, chief executive of ICA Gruppen said “For the past several years we have been working actively and in a structured manner, with continuous change in all steps of the value chain. The end goal is to influence producers and consumers in a more sustainable direction and to conduct our own operations in a climate-smart manner."
He added that this work "continued during the first quarter of 2017. Key achievements include a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions according to plan”.
Food Waste
The Group has also initiated plans to reduce food waste at stores. During the first quarter of the year ICA Sweden began working with the organisation Food-2-Change.
Food-2-Change is an organisation that distributes food, that would otherwise have been discarded, to people with low incomes. Customers can subscribe to Food-2-Change and can pick up the food at select stores.
ICA Gruppen has also reported continued growth in sales of eco-labelled, organic & and ethically labelled range products. Sales in these categories from ICA's central assortment grew 8% over the past 12 months.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Aidan O'Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
