Sainsbury’s wins Food& Farming Award | Industry News | TalkingRetail.com

Sainsbury’s has won‘Best Retail Initiative’ at the BBC Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards for helping its farmers reduce their carbon footprint and achieve real financial savings.

Sainsbury’s was the only supermarket short-listed in any category this year, and winning the award reflects Sainsbury’s commitment to working with its producers to build a sustainable supply chain.

Sainsbury’s partnered with environmental consultancy, AB Sustain, to develop a carbon footprint model for its producers. The model assesses the environmental impact of production and provides farmers with individual advice on how to improve their footprint.

The scheme aims to provide farms with a better understanding of their environmental impact by fully funding individual on-farm carbon assessments. To date the scheme has carbon footprinted over 325 Sainsbury’s dairy development group farms, 98 cheese development farms, 260 beef development farms, 1,400 lamb development farms.

In just two years, Sainsbury’s dairy development group farms have saved 10,000 tonnes of carbon. The real benefit to farmers, however, has been the improved understanding of energy efficiencies on their farm and real cost savings. The initiative was also the first model to achieve PAS2050 Tier Three accreditation, a carbon footprint accreditation that no other retailer has achieved.

Following the success of its Dairy Development Group, the supermarket has rolled out this approach across its primary agricultural supply base, investing£21m to date in establishing dedicated development groups in beef, lamb, pork, eggs, chicken, milk, cheese, grain and produce.

Judith Batchelar, director of Sainsbury’s brand, said:“We have come a long way with our farmers and are very proud of our progress in helping make the whole supply chain more sustainable with schemes like this.

“We’re delighted to be awarded‘Best Retail Initiative’ at the BBC’s Food and Farming Awards, and as the only major retailer shortlisted, the award shows that Sainsbury’s stands out in the way it has developed relationships with farmers to help produce fresh, healthy and tasty food for our customers.”

Source: Sainsbury’s 

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