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Safeway results - Environment
- Indicator 1.1
- Indicator 1.2
- Indicator 1.3
- Overall commentary and examples of good practice
- Supermarket comments
Indicator 1.1
Issue: Corporate commitment to environmental responsibility and performance
Indicator: Board-level responsibility, training and reporting
Best in class
Safeway shows commitment to CSR through its CSR Steering Group chaired by Lawrence Christensen, the Group Operations Director. He is the main Board Director with Corporate Social Responsibility. The group meets bi-monthly and reports to the Board quarterly covering all Environmental Issues particularly when they are of concern to Safeway’s stakeholders. Progress against the key targets of environmental impacts for Safeway (energy, transport, refrigeration and waste) are reported quarterly to the Board.
Training and development with an Environmental component does take place, but only where staff have a relevant functional responsibility. Senior management receive training on appropriate CSR issues, but it would be useful to know details and to see a structured Environment component within the staff induction process. An energy awareness campaign has been successfully trialled and is currently underway in 100 stores and 1 RDC during 2003/04.
The Safeway CSR report scores highly against the ACCA Environmental Reporting Award Criteria. It is thorough and well set out including all relevant environment impact data, targets, objectives and policies. The CSR report is kept on the website (good for saving on paper!) where you can navigate each chapter separately or download the entire report and appendices.
Indicator 1.2
Issue: Climate change
Indicator: Energy use and emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)
Safeway has been a signatory of Government’s Making a Corporate Commitment Campaign (MACC2) since 2000. This commits the company to setting and reporting of environmental targets. Its objective is to become the leader in energy management within the food industry. It continues to use the DEFRA ‘Environmental Reporting Guidelines’ for company reporting on Greenhouse Gas emissions. 18m kWh of energy was obtained from renewable energy sources, which can be improved upon but it has had had problems with sourcing. Safeway has also had third party energy audits carried out at four stores and one regional distribution centre.
Safeway has set targets for the reduction of in-store and transport-related emissions, which are well documented in the CSR report. A ‘Staff Green Travel Plan’ has been adopted, which promotes the benefits of walking and cycling to work. It has also launched a new integrated transport system, which is reducing overall fleet size and improving vehicle utilisation by planning integrated vehicle movements across all depots compared to the previous system whereby each depot computer scheduled its own deliveries to stores and the time spent with the vehicle empty. Safeway also operates the largest Compressed Natural Gas HGV vehicle fleet of its kind in the world and a total of five of its eighteen regional distribution centres are now ISO14001 accredited.
Indicator 1.3
Issue: Waste
Indicator: Waste management and minimisation
Safeway has met and exceeded its waste targets for the year, hence it scored highly across the group with regards to the cost of waste sent to landfill. All waste data is thorough and well documented in the CSR report. There are no food composting schemes in place, one scheme involving waste recovery was halted during the foot and mouth crisis. Food is donated to zoos and animal sanctuaries. The company awaits guidelines from DEFRA regarding commercial confidence in recovering putrescible materials. Nearly 20% of their own-brand produce sold this year had biodegradable packaging. Safeway was also the first UK retailer to offer a Nationwide scheme for customers to bring back used plastic carrier bags and aluminium cans for recycling in stores.
Overall commentary and examples of good practice
Safeway performed very well and achieved high scores across all indicators.
Areas of good practice
- Safeway has entered into a number of other energy or climate change initiatives including: the Carbon Disclosure Project; Energy Awareness Campaign (as part of the Government’s Action Energy Scheme); carried out research into application of Combined Heating Refrigeration and Power; and has opened a carbon trading account. Safeway was also a founder member of consumer awareness initiatives including Buy Recycled and Rethink Rubbish.
- Safeway has led the way in establishing one of the most efficient distribution systems, introducing a number of measures to reduce food miles, reduce the energy consumption of its haulage fleet, and divert freight off the roads.
- Five of Safeway’s regional distribution centres are now ISO14001 accredited.
- Safeway’S 2001/2 CSR report was short listed by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) for the UK Sustainability Report award.
- Safeway was also the first UK retailer to offer Nation wide scheme for customers to bring back used plastic carrier bags and aluminium cans for recycling in stores.
- A ‘Staff Green Travel Plan’ has been adopted, which promotes the benefits of walking and cycling to work
Areas to be improved
- Reduce energy emissions through modifications to store lighting and through recovering waste heat from refrigerant systems. Complete phase out of old HCFC store refrigerant systems with new more efficient units (HFCs).
- Explore increasing energy sourced from renewable sources. Other leading supermarket purchase 10-25% of their electricity from renewable sources.
- We recommend Safeway continues to experiment with new technology in the form of alternative fuels (biodiesel, liquid petroleum gas, compressed natural gas) and new vehicle designs that minimise fuel use through aerodynamic changes and new tyres.
- We encourage the continued diversion of vehicles off the roads through the use of rail freight. Combined transport can provide very cost-effective and reliable alternatives to road-only options.
- We suggest Safeway continues to increase its waste minimisation focus by setting more ambitious targets, as they are exceeding their current targets. Increase the use of recycled materials in packaging and seek to utilise more biodegradable packaging. Consider trialling a composting scheme in line with other leading supermarkets with a long-term aim of the compost being marketed locally.
- Consideration should be given to implementing environment and full cost accounting as part of Safeway’s risk management and internal control, which can be published within the Annual Environmental report.
- Introduce Environmental awareness training for all Safeway staff, through the induction process.
Supermarket comments
“Safeway is delighted that the strengths of its environmental strategy have been recognised by RTTT for the way that the business identifies and manages its environmental impacts and reports on its activities and progress.
This conclusion is in line with external ratings by other organisations. These include:
- ARENA Network’s sixth annual survey of Northern Ireland companies and local authorities has placed Safeway in the top quintile of performance.
- Business in the Environment’s 7th Index of Environmental Engagement placed Safeway in the Premier League
- Safeway is a constituent of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good UK Index
- Safeway is a constituent of the Morley Fund Management Sustainability Matrix with a current C2 rating
- SERM gives Safeway an AA+ rating (top possible score AAA+)
- Storebrand Investments SRI assessment of 86 retailers globally included Safeway in the ‘best in class’ percentile of Storebrand’s environmental and social performance analysis . Safeway scored 168 points (best was 169) for its environmental performance, 163 points (best score 173) for its social performance
In response to specific suggestions made in this section:
- Food composting will commence once it is commercially comparable to diversion to landfill. This is not the case at present.
- Safeway’s use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) has been a business as usual operation since 1998. Evaluation of alternative fuels for retailer HGV application has already determined that LPG (better suited for smaller vehicles) and used vegetable oil (benefits for emissions and noise levels less significant than for CNG), are currently not appropriate for our HGV fleet.
- Our stated objectives and targets on rail, waste, energy already support recommendations made by RTTT.”