Coles’ has released its 2022 Sustainability Report, outlining progress made for its Towards Zero and Better Together initiatives, and overall ambition to be Australia’s most sustainable supermarket.
The group says it has made pleasing progress against many of the public commitments set last year under the focus areas of Together to Zero and Better Together, also acknowledging a significant amount of work was still ahead.
Coles CEO Steven Cain and chair James Graham said sustainability is considered at the highest levels of the organisation.
“There is a genuine understanding of the importance of robust governance over sustainability performance. The Board has oversight of all of Coles’ sustainability commitments and monitors performance on a quarterly basis, with sustainability also being more explicitly referenced in our refreshed corporate strategy this year,” said Graham
Progress highlights revealed in the report include record meal donations of 37.5 million to Aussies in need – its highest ever annual total up from 35 million meals in FY21, and signing the last of the agreements needed to be powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity by the end of FY25.
Together to Zero
The Together to Zero initiative focuses on ambitions across emissions, waste and hunger. In FY22 Coles reported it reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2.8 per cent, and ranked the number two retailer globally for sustainable business practices in the World Benchmarking Alliance’s 2021 Food and Agriculture.
As outlined in its Climate Change Position Statement, Coles supported the goals of the Paris Agreement to keep global temperatures well below 2°C, agreeing it would also pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
The group says it is well progressed on its target for the entire Coles Group to be powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity by the end of FY25. During FY22, it signed the last of the renewable electricity agreements needed to meet the target.
The agreements in place for large-scale generation certificates (LGC) are with Lal Lal Wind Farms, Neoen, ENGIE, Origin Energy, and ACCIONA Energía and will be sourced from renewable electricity generated at wind and solar farms across Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland.
The portfolio of generation assets includes several wind and solar farms, which are under construction, as well as existing sites such as Willogoleche Wind Farm in South Australia and Mt Gellibrand Wind Farm in Victoria.
At the end of FY22, 84 Coles supermarkets had solar panels installed, and natural refrigerants were in use in 28 supermarkets (compared to 14 in FY21) and 15 Coles Liquor stores (compared to 8 in FY21). Coles Supply Chain also trialled an electric-powered truck In FY22, as part of a six-month trial being undertaken with transport partner Linfox Logistics to assess how best to lower their respective transport carbon footprints.
FY22 saw Coles partner with DSM, looking to reduce its emissions from beef products.
During the year, it continued to partner with Integrity Ag and Environment to complete lifecycle assessment on fresh beef to improve its understanding of its emissions profile.
Together with its fresh beef producers and processing partners, Coles is seeking to reduce emissions in this supply chain category while contributing to the Australian red meat industry goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.
Coles partnership with DSM will see two separate trials to evaluate the feed supplement, Bovaer, which has been shown to greatly reduce methane emissions from cattle.
Together to Zero Waste
In regards to waste reduction initiatives, Coles continues to work with industry partners and suppliers, following and promoting the waste hierarchy – avoid, reduce, reuse and then recycle.
The group reported 94.6 per cent of its Own Brand packaging was recyclable, reusable or compostable in Australia.
In August, Coles trialled a removal of single-use plastic fresh produce bags in its ACT supermarkets, hoping to encourage customers to bring their own bags. This followed the introduction of marine waste and recycled plastic bags in May, reducing the need for virgin plastic bags. The marine reusable shopping bags are made with 80 per cent recycled plastic, which inlcudes 20 per cent marine waste plastic, sourced mainly from Malaysia and recovered from ocean-feeding waterways and inland areas.
Coles Liquor introduced the eco-bottle wine range in collaboration with packaging pioneers Packamama and winemakers Garcon wines, Taylors Wines and Accolade Wines. The eco-bottle has a slimmer and flatter profile and is made from 100% recycled Australian PET plastic (excluding the cap) and is 83 per cent lighter than an average glass wine bottle.
Its recycling initiatives saw a 38 per cent increase in soft plastic collections from stores through the REDcycle program. As a result of the uptick in REDcycle collections, 777 million pieces of soft plastic or 3,108 tonnes were saved from landfill, compared to 2,260 tonnes in FY21.
Coles also saw increases in its progress towards diverting waste from landfill, managing to divert 82.5 per cent of solid waste from landfill, compared with 80.6 per cent in FY22.
Since FY19, every Coles supermarket and distribution centre has had a food waste solution available. Its first choice donation for unsold, edible food remains SecondBite and Foodbank. Other food waste solutions include donations to farmers and animal, or wildlife, services, organic collections and in-store digestors. Food waste initiatives are also extending past solids, with Coles Liquor reducing food waste though its partnership with Local Brewing Co, which has brewed three beverages using surplus fruit and unsold Coles Bakery bread.
Looking to the future, Coles will further its food-waste and donation work, following its appointment as a founding signatory of the Australian Food Pact in October 2021. Over the three year partnership, Coles will work together with other major food businesses to advance reductions of food waste within our own operations.
Better Together
Focusing on positive outcomes for its team members, farmers, suppliers, customers and the communities, the Better Together initiative resuts for FY22 saw positive change.
In FY22, the group achieved its largest single-year increase in women in leadership positions from 36.5 per cent in FY21, to 39.4 per cent. Additionally, 37.5 per cent of Coles board are women, 50 per cent of team members identify as female, and the pay parity gap is now 1.1 per cent, down from 1.3 per cent in FY21.
Coles says it remains committed to increasing the percentage of team members who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. It says that given the impact of the past 20 months on its Indigenous talent pool, hitting targets of 5 per cent by December 2023 will be a challenge. Currently 3.2 per cent of Coles team members identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Initiatives underway include: direct local recruitment campaigns, pre-employment programs, and partnering with community and university sectors for graduate employment, resulting in 3 per cent of graduate hires identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.
CEO Steven Cain said the although the actions taken by the group had been globally recognised, such as its ranking in the World Benchmarking Alliance’s 2021 Food and Agriculture benchmark, the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and natural disasters left much work to do.
"Realistically, we know there is more we can and must do. Devastating flooding in parts of Australia earlier this year, and the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, are stark reminders of the environmental and social challenges the world faces,” said Cain.
