Lidl Ireland Commits to Becoming a Carbon Neutral Business by 2025
Date published: August 25, 2021
Lidl Ireland has today announced its commitment to becoming a carbon neutral business by 2025 and industry leading initiatives including launching a dedicated Supplier Engagement Programme and enabling customers to lower their carbon impact through EV charging points. The retailer also plans to further progress on its targets by committing to a 46% reduction on its operational emissions by 2030. The announcement comes as part of the retailer’s progress report on their sustainability strategy ‘A Better Tomorrow’. Lidl is committed to driving those targets through a robust schedule of activities that target their internal operations as well as initiatives that support their network of suppliers and customers to lower their carbon impact. These initiatives will cement Lidl’s position as Ireland’s most sustainable retailer.
To achieve the ambitious targets for carbon neutrality, Lidl has engaged The Carbon Trust over the last two years to collaborate with them on measuring the retailer’s carbon footprint and to model in-depth reduction pathways aligned to the Science Based Target initiative guidelines. A localised national reduction strategy has been created which aligns with the Paris Agreement’s global 1.5-degree scenario towards decarbonisation.
Industry First Supplier Engagement Programme
Lidl has also developed a dedicated ‘Supplier Engagement Programme,’ the first of its kind in the Irish retail industry, which sees collaboration with their key suppliers to develop CSR and Sustainability projects to improve the supplier’s environmental impact and in turn, help them ti grow their future business sustainably. The 5-year collaborative programme aims to develop long term plans with suppliers to address carbon emissions reduction but also packaging reduction and circularity amongst other areas. As part of this programme, Lidl is also collaborating with external stakeholders such as Bord Bia’s Origin Green, Teagasc, The Carbon Trust and Bord Iascaigh Mhara, to add their credibility and expertise in shaping the projects with their suppliers. To date, Lidl have been working with Liffey Meats, Meade Farm, Keohane’s of Bantry and Belview Eggs to develop long term plans to address these ares.
Green and Renewable Energy
Having already made the switch to purchasing 100% green energy in 2018, Lidl is supporting a switch to energy generation by committing to retrofitting solar panelling across at least 15 stores per year. A €75 million expansion of its Mullingar Distribution Centre will see the installation of the retailer’s largest solar array across any of the Lidl Ireland properties and one of the largest in the country, providing enough energy to meet approximately 25% of the distribution centre’s energy requirements. Lidl currently have 62 dedicated customer charging points across its store network, the most of any retailer in Ireland, and is committed to increasing this number over the coming years.
