We have a role to play in tackling climate change. Our approach requires us to cut the impacts of our operations, and engage our suppliers and consumers to cut theirs. Our primary focus is on our operational emissions where we’ve set a Group goal to reduce our carbon equivalent emissions (CO2) by 20% per sales square meter by 2020.
We’ve worked hard to reduce energy consumption, but this has been offset by increases in refrigerant emissions. As we replace ozone-depleting refrigerants, we’re forced to use the available alternatives, which contain potent greenhouse gases. See our 2010 insight for more details.
Our new CR strategy, to be released later in 2011, will take a broader approach, addressing impacts throughout our value chain.
What are we doing about climate change?
Measuring emissions
Since 2008, we've worked with Environmental Resources Management (ERM) to measure our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from global operations. In 2010, we employed Ernst & Young to provide external data assurance. Click here to see the assurance statement. We also submitted our first report to the Carbon Disclosure Project. Click here to see the report.
Energy efficiency
In 2010, we achieved a 1.4% reduction from 2009 in Group-wide energy consumption per square meter of sales area,down to 813 kWh/ m2. Key activities here include putting doors on refrigerated cases and upgrading to LED lights, led by an aggressive program at Sweetbay. Doing this saved Sweetbay USD 3.12 million and Food Lion USD 1.84 million in 2010. Delhaize Belgium saved almost EUR 2 million in 2010 by reducing electricity consumption by 8.7% compared to 2009.
Reducing emissions
Our Group absolute emissions are up 2.8% from 2009 to 2 894 637 tonnes CO2 equivalent (CO2e). This is a 0.8% increase per sales square meter from 2009, and a 0.6% decrease from 2008.
Building more efficient facilities
We continue to push innovations in green buildings, by remodeling existing stores and building new ones. In 2010, we opened Greece’s first green store, which incorporates a full suite of innovative technologies. Click here to see more on Alfa Beta’s green store.
We have five green stores worldwide and our 1 000 Energy Star certified stores in the U.S. represent 58% of all stores certificates given in the U.S. Lessons from these projects are being incorporated into our prototype and remodeled plans across the Group.
Renewables
2010 saw a huge increase in energy generated by on-site solar panels, up 62.7% from 2009 levels to 1 013 MWh, largely driven by expansion of solar power in Belgium. However, the Group saw a decrease of 9.4% of total electricity from renewables compared to 2009.
This is due to a fall in the purchase of green electricity credits, mirroring an overall decrease in electricity consumed in Belgium. Since 2007, Delhaize Belgium has received all its electricity from a renewable energy supplier.
Transport efficiency
We’re proud that even with increasing sales, Group-wide we’ve cut transport kilometers by 1.5% compared to 2009. Hannaford has delivered very good results, cutting fuel use by 9%, saving the equivalent of 137 000 gallons of fuel or USD 731 000.
Refrigerants
We successfully increased the use of ozone-friendly refrigerants, from 38% of total refrigerants used in 2009 to 42% in 2010. Unfortunately, the ozone-friendly refrigerants that are cost effective and widely available for retailers are more potent greenhouse gases. This is the main reason why our total emissions increased in 2010. Read our 2010 insight for more details.