UK grocer Sainsbury's last week announced an aggressive new sustainability program that promises to achieve 20 environment goals by 2020, and aims to get there in part by more direct interaction with its supply base.

The retail says its "20 by 20 Sustainability Plan" comes "at exactly the right time for Sainsbury’s. One only has to pick up the daily newspapers to see the challenges facing our society, economy and planet to understand why," saying that "capacity to provide food is threatened by climate change, water scarcity and unsustainable farming practices."

It adds that it intends "to transform the marketplace for greener, fairer and healthier products. We want to help shift our customers’ everyday behavior in favor of sustainability but still provide the value and quality that they have come to expect."

Ambitious goals, to be sure.

The 20 goals Sainsbury's hopes to achieve by 2020 are illustrated in the graphic below. It is taken from a pdf document detailing the plan, which can be found here: Sainsbury's 20 x 20 Sustainability Plan.

Most of the programs goals have a supply chain impact of one kind or another, and most directly in its stated goal that "By 2020, our suppliers will also be leaders in meeting or exceeding our social and environmental standards."

To get there, Sainsbury's says that it has already launched a supplier environmental scorecard to track and measure its suppliers' environmental footprints; launched a Carbon Academy to train 20,000 suppliers, contractors and colleagues to reduce their carbon footprint by 2020; invested over £30 million since 2006 in developing relationships with farmers and growers; and was a founding member of the Ethical Trading Initiative

Sainsbury's Ambitious 20 x 20 Program Goals

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Coming soon, Sainsbury's says, will be the following actions:

It will work with branded and goods not for resale suppliers to meet or exceed Sainsbury' social and environmental standards.

Release a requirement that all Sainsbury’s suppliers must be engaged in good human resource management in order to comply with its Code of Conduct.

Launch a new research and development program to drive best practice in social and environmental standards in its supply base.

Take steps to ensure that all of our purchasing decisions are informed by our Code of Conduct and evidence of supplier best practice.

Launch sustainability scorecards across the business, enabling buyers and technical teams to make informed decisions.

Commit that if over the long term, suppliers do not meet its social and environmental standards, Sainsbury's will cease to do business with them.

Actively look to support brands being launched with higher ethical standards.

Any and all of these could have significant implications for Sainsbury's suppliers.

Other notable goals include a commitment to reduce packaging by 2020 to 50% over 2005 levels, and similar promises to reduce absolute carbon footprint by 30% by 2020 and 50% by 2030. The 30% carbon reduction would represent a carbon intensity reduction of 65% compared to 2005, the company says.

The report notes that the company is very active in use of alternative technologies such as geo-thermal and biofuel generators to power its retail stores.

The company also promises to put all waste materials it creates to re-use by 2020.

The program, however, goes far beyond environmental goals, promising, for example, that it will "encourage more than 20 million children to enjoy physical activity," will double the sales of lower alcohol wines, and that it will keep more employees for a lifetime, provide them with more training, and create 50,000 new job positions in the UK.

All told, the company says it will invest about one billion pounds in the program, and that a key part of the program is sharing its environment learnings from its own private label supply chains with its branded suppliers.

What is your reaction to Sainsbury's 20 x 20 program? Great thing - or maybe taking things a bit too far in terms of trying to direct its market and customers? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button below.

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