April 22, 2023 – Today on Earth Day, people, businesses and governments are coming together across the world to advocate for bold, creative and innovative solutions for the climate crisis. This year’s Earth Day theme, invest in our planet, highlights the importance of dedicating time, resources, and energy to solving climate change and other environmental challenges. For Ahold Delhaize, we are proud to be part of a community of organizations striving towards this goal together.
As a large organization, we are on our own climate mission to address the direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across our operations and value chain and that of our brands. We have identified short-term (interim) and long-term (net-zero) targets, and priority opportunities across scope 1, 2 and 3. To learn more, please see our Climate Plan which we released in November.
With thanks to our brands' farmers, suppliers and customers dedicated efforts, we’re contributing to a healthier planet. Below you can see some key examples of how we're investing in our planet.
When announcing our updated Scope 3 targets last November, we identified three main drivers of emission reduction in our entire value chain; suppliers and farmers, low-carbon products and customer engagement:
Transforming business and supporting farmers in reducing their carbon emissions
Expanding the product range of sustainable low-carbon products
Improving customer engagement and marketing low carbon products to influence behavior
- By rewarding more sustainable choices with loyalty programs and discounts, we aim to help customers understand the impact of their buying decisions, while incentivizing them to make sustainable purchases. Several of our brands like Albert in the Czech Republic and Delhaize in Belgium have leveraged local loyalty programs to bring increasing product transparency to vegan and vegetarian options.
- In the same vein, this has encouraged the introduction of more plant-based protein products in some of our brands’ assortments. For example, Albert Heijn has committed to achieve a distribution of 60% plant-based and 40% animal-based protein sales by 2030.
By collaborating with our brands’ farmers, suppliers and customers we are continuously finding innovative solutions to contribute to a more sustainable food system.
