Retailing and finance group The Co-operative has published tougher emissions and water use targets, but pushed back plans to become carbon neutral in its second ethical operations plan
A year after pledging to use carbon offsets to neutralise emissions from all of its operations by 2012, The Co-operative has published new plans stating it now does not aim to become carbon neutral until 2014.
At the beginning of 2011, the group outlined a series of operation-wide sustainability targets in its first ethical operations plan. They included a 35% cut in greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions on 2006 levels by 2017 and a 10% cut in water consumption by 2013, alongside pledges to increase access to funding for renewable energy projects.
Following its a sustainability report published last June, which confirmed the group had already met its GHG and water targets in 2010, The Co-operative’s second ethical plan includes new targets to halve emissions by 2050 and cut water consumption by 30% on 2008 levels by 2014.
Other new targets for the group include creating an advice centre for employees to help them reduce their environmental impacts and upping the amount of finance available for community-scale renewables to £100 million, up from £1 million in the 2011 plan.
“Despite the economic downturn we have remained true to our pledge to show the way on corporate responsibility,” said the group’s chief executive Peter Marks in launching the new plan. “It helps that the savings that result from our environmental efficiency initiatives, nearly £40m a year, are being ploughed back into the business to reduce costs.”
In publishing the second plan, the group also confirmed that during 2011 the group had successfully moved to only using sustainably-sourced palm oil and that it had provided £700 million to support green energy projects.
