The global food system is responsible for more than 30% of total climate change emissions and 60% of biodiversity loss, and retailers – the bridge between those who produce our food and the consumers who eat it – have an essential role to play in reshaping that system. WWF is committed to working with them to do so.
In November 2021, they announced the WWF Basket- their ambition to halve the environmental impact of UK shopping baskets by 2030. They published outcomes and measures to define the targets the retail industry must work towards and explain how we’re measuring progress. Here are the headline findings.
The food system is complex. To help target efforts where they will make the most difference, and to maximise transparency and accountability, environmental impact in the WWF Basket is assessed across seven target ‘Areas’. Within each Area are several higher-level ‘Outcomes’ that will need to be achieved by 2030 in order to halve the environmental impact of UK shopping baskets. Each Outcome contains specific retailer progress measures for tracking performance and progress, both in terms of actions taken and impacts achieved. Most progress measures are framed in absolute terms, with a clear target performance level and timeframe. In these cases, whatever the point of measurement, the distance to go to achieve the target is self-evident. By contrast, other progress measures are framed as percentage reductions – calculating the distance to go in these cases requires a baseline to measure against. The baseline year in these cases varies by Basket Area and depends both on data availability and pre-existing industry commitments that align well with the Basket. Some baselines may see revisions in future years as measurement and reporting improve. These progress indicators are not the only areas in which actions are needed, but collectively tracking them each year will give a good indication of overall progress towards our shared goal.
Access the Report.
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