Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time.
Over the years, we have assessed the risks our business is exposed to. These include physical risks, such as extreme weather events, and transition risks, such as changing regulations, innovation, market trends in energy supply, and rising energy costs.
It is crucial to adopt appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies across the value chain. Without these, we expose ourselves to negative impacts such as flooding, droughts, and rising sea levels. These can affect the areas that produce our raw commodities and cause damage to the infrastructure where we make and sell our products.
Our strategy considers the climate-related risks and opportunities we have identified as a business. We aim to ensure our business is designed for resilience against climate change.
The science is clear: setting stringent targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions will help preserve our ecosystems. We recognise the importance of using more renewable energy sources and reducing our emissions footprint across our value chain.
We are part of the collective effort to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. We have an approved science-based emissions reduction target that aligns with this goal. We have also committed to achieving a net zero carbon impact by 2040. These targets allow us to consolidate our efforts to address the effects of climate change within our business.
Over the years, we have strengthened our ability to maintain credible data to inform decision-making. This has enabled consistent improvement in our energy performance and proactive measures to reduce the adverse impacts of our business on the environment.
Our co-ordinated energy strategy has the following pillars:
Most of our carbon emissions come from electricity usage and emissions from producing and manufacturing our products.
Until recently, we focused primarily on reducing emissions from our direct operations. We adopted a systematic approach, with initiatives including online metering of electricity, energy efficiency programmes, and application of eco-friendly technology. These initiatives have yielded energy savings and financial benefits.
Quantifying our impact by measuring our carbon footprint is essential to our approach. Programmes such as Farming for the Future have enabled us to cement our approach with suppliers to ensure we work collectively to transform the value chain.
We conduct training and awareness programmes as part of capacity building to encourage employees to apply best practices in all our facilities.
Woolworths continues to be transparent through voluntary disclosure to organisations such as the CDP. We meet all mandatory reporting obligations in the areas where we operate. We transparently disclose climate-related risks and opportunities for our business.
More information on the focus area and our performance thereon, our carbon footprint and TCFD disclosures can be found in our annual Good Business Journey Report
