Lidl Ireland aims for ‘carbon neutrality’ but admits it will come at cost

Lidl Ireland has claimed it can hit "carbon neutrality" by 2025 as the discount supermarket chain announced a raft of new environmental measures on Tuesday for the company and its network of 211 stores, including 170 in the Republic.

JP Scally, the company’s chief executive, admitted there would be a material cost for the notoriously cost conscious group, which often claims to have the cheapest prices in the market due to its slimmed down cost base.

But he said it would push ahead with the measures anyway, in the belief that its rivals would eventually have to follow suit and implement similar measures, removing any cost disadvantage it may encounter by using greener methods.

Cost

“Is [the suite of measures] cost neutral? No. There is a cost associated with it. We have discussed this repeatedly at board level. But ultimately we have come to the conclusion that we cannot always base everything on a cost benefit analysis,” he said.

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Lidl, which has a 13 per cent share of the grocery market in the South and close to 7 per cent in the North, says it is working with advisory body the Carbon Trust on measuring its carbon footprint and on devising a strategy for reducing its footprint.

In terms of hard targets, it has promised a 46 per cent reduction in its core operational emissions by 2030, when compared to its emissions in 2019. These include emissions from the core on-site operations and its energy needs, often referred to in environmental terms as “scope 1” and “scope 2” emissions.

It is also targeting large reductions in “scope 3” emissions, which include downstream emissions from suppliers.

Lidl Ireland said it will retrofit solar panels to about 15 stores a year over the coming years. It is also committing that 100 per cent of its own-brand packaging will be recyclable by 2025, while 50 per cent of it will be made from recyclable materials.

Lidl currently has 74 electric vehicle charging points in supermarket car parks across its stores, but the company says it will expand this network.

Fleet

Mr Scally said it has replaced many of its company cars, especially in the Dublin area, with electric vehicles. However, he said the “technology is not there yet” to move towards a fully electric fleet of trucks for the daily deliveries to each of its stores.

“Electric vehicles for deliveries is something we are open-minded about. We are talking to people about it. The technology is not quite there yet but as soon as it is, we will be the first to jump on it,” he said.

The company has also devised a five-year programme for its biggest suppliers to help them work out strategies for reducing their own emissions.

The company says that much of its supplier packaging is to keep its products fresh. But it has previously committed to eliminating waste such as the environmentally damaging and non-recyclable black plastic that comes with some fresh products.