Aldi – Corporate Responsibility Policy
Objectives
Our Corporate Responsibility Policy is an integral part of our business. We put customers at the heart of everything we do by continuing to lead on price and quality, while working responsibly and sustainably.
We build ethical and longstanding relationships with our suppliers to reduce our environmental impact.
We are committed to working effectively and efficiently to reduce waste.
Implementation
Aldi is the UK’s first retailer to sign the NFU’s Fruit and Veg Pledge and one of the first signatories for Courtauld 2025, demonstrating our commitment to supporting British produce and reducing waste.
Through our Energy Optimisation Project, we continually monitor energy usage to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption.
Our Produce Buying Team has developed a three-year CR initiative to work with Farm Africa, helping farmers develop sustainable livelihoods and protect natural resources.
Success
For the third year running, we have ranked as the most compliant retailer in the Groceries Supply Code of Practice. Our suppliers also voted Aldi as the fairest supermarket to work with in the Groceries Code Adjudicator survey.
For two consecutive years, we have achieved the ISO 50001 accreditation for consistent progress made in carbon savings and energy consumption reduction.
As part of Courtauld Commitment 3, we saw a relative reduction of 11 per cent in our packaging covering the period 2012 to 2015.
We have even gone beyond expectations by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 38 per cent by 2014, against a target of 30 per cent by 2020.
Asoex – Sustainability Guide
The very first industry-wide sustainability guide developed by a fresh fruit supplier in the world.
This Sustainability Guide has been drafted in the context of the project called “Designing a Plan of Action and Program Implementation for a Sustainable Fruit Industry”. The guide is based on a benchmark study of retailer requirements in Europe and the United States, as well as recommendations made by leading sector organisations. It is intended to make implementing the main sustainability requirements easier. Although it is a basic or first guide focused on fruit growers, the principles and practices contained in it may be adapted to other links of the fruit chain, for which specific guides will be subsequently prepared.
Branston – Crop utilisation
Imperfect produce ranges are helping to increase crop utilisation and reduce waste, but there’s still a considerable volume of ugly spuds that are bit too ‘wonky’ to be packed and sold as they are. Inside they are perfectly fine, but issues like blemished skin, growth cracks, or tricky to peel, knobbly shapes don’t appeal to consumers.
Working closely with Tesco and one of their major convenience meal suppliers, we’ve realised an opportunity to expand our B2B operations to utilise these visually imperfect but entirely edible potatoes. We substantially extended our prepared foods factory and invested £5m in a new prepared ingredients facility. It features two state of the art batch peeling lines enabling us to peel up to 500 tonnes of potatoes per week. Once peeled, they are ideal to be used in a whole range of convenience food products.
The peelers can cope with potatoes of all shapes and sizes, producing a consistent quality product all ready for processing by Samworth Brothers for their ready meals and mashed potato sides. This approach increases freshness while reducing the food miles involved in the production process. As well as this, we’re improving the traceability of products in the supply chain.
This collaborative process is helping us find a high value home for most of the potato crop, resulting in less waste and helping Tesco to keep prices consistently competitive for its customers. As a way to reduce food waste it’s a real win for everyone in the supply chain.
G’s – Green energy
Traditional mushroom farms use large amounts of energy and heat generated from non-renewable sources to grow their crop.
G’s Fresh Mushrooms has developed a system that uses green energy generated from an onsite anaerobic digester instead of energy from non-renewable sources.
Heat which is generated during the digestion process is transferred to the mushroom farm and is used in both the growing and hygiene operations, removing the energy-intensive traditional method of steam sterilisation of the tunnels.
The net effect of these actions is a reduction of circa four million kgs of CO2e vs a traditional mushroom farm over the space of a year.
A completely sustainable cycle, every year 25,000 tonnes of spent compost from G’s Fresh Mushrooms is applied on to the wider G’s Farms in the Fens as a soil conditioner. The Fens see on average up to 3cm of soil erosion per year and the addition of spent compost helps to reduce this significantly. Crops from these fields produce the waste material that goes into the anaerobic digester. The cycle continues.
Finally as mushroom farming is traditionally in small farms with enclosed structures, biodiversity and conservation are low priorities. However at G’s Fresh Mushrooms, we are actively developing new and existing wildlife habitats to encompass birds, insects and mammals. This biodiversity incorporates over 150 plant varieties, 20 species of mammals, 110 species of birds, 17 butterfly species and over five different types of specialist habitats, recognised by leading conservation and wildlife trusts as pioneering work.
Greenvale – Green 20
Greenvale AP is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of fresh potatoes and within our business we are committed to a future of sustainability. Over our 40 years of trading we have always been environmentally proactive and innovative. This is currently represented by our ISO 14001 environmental management system and our Green 20 strategy.
Green 20 will help us to strive for sustainability, by setting ambitious but achievable targets. By focusing on water, carbon and waste we are committed to reducing our environmental impact. Green 20 aims to continue Greenvale’s environmental success over the next five years and replaces the Green 15 targets which were achieved successfully by the end of 2015. Our target by 2020 is 35 per cent reduction of water, 30 per cent reduction of carbon and all sites zero to landfill. Furthermore through our onsite wind turbine and solar panels we aim to generate 35 per cent of group electricity.
We have partnered up with the food bank charity FareShare in order to reduce our food waste. We put spare potatoes to good use and donations to FareShare are redistributed to one of the 900 charities they support. This affiliation helps to reduce our waste, but most importantly helps to feed the homeless, families in need and other vulnerable people. Our partnership with FareShare recently passed the 500,000 mark with regards to number of meals we have donated to.
Polymer Logistics – Market Place crate
The Market Place crate is an attractive wood-effect plastic container from Polymer Logistics that delivers a 'farm fresh' look to produce departments, catching customers’ attention and boosting retailers’ sales.
Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Tesco’s ‘One Stop’ shops and “Sewell on the go” – a British chain of c-stores – have signed long-term agreements with Polymer Logistics based on thorough studies, pilots and customer acceptance surveys.
During pilots, retailers reported a significant uplift of over three per cent in produce sales when using the Market Place crate. Customer surveys showed a clear preference of over 85 per cent for the wood-look crates compared to the industrial plastic-looking green or black crates. Customers appreciated the fresh ‘back-to-nature’ look, which creates a traditional market feel in the store.
In today’s “first impression counts” environment there can be no doubt that where retailers deploy the Market Place crate, an uplift in sales will naturally follow.
The produce department, typically located at the front of the supermarket, drives traffic for the overall outlet. So any improvement there has an exponential benefit on total store sales. Retailers have introduced wooden plinths in the department to emphasise the freshness of produce. However when it comes to the actual produce packaging, the use of coloured industrial-looking crates is commonplace.
Market Place crates provide an appealing alternative to standard plastic containers without compromising any of the hygiene, cost effectiveness or environmental benefits associated with reusable packaging. They also offer a more longlasting, sanitary and user-friendly experience than is possible with actual wood containers.
Tesco, XPO Logistics and Bioshield – BioMist Vehicle Sanitisation System
Consumer safety and eliminating food safety risks has prompted a unique research project which has succeeded in identifying rapid and extremely low-cost methods of achieving the highest levels in supply chain bio-security with a particular emphasis on food safety compliance in fresh produce transportation.
Over the past three years Tesco, XPO Logistics and Bioshield have introduced the BioMist Vehicle Sanitisation System which essentially replaces the historically ineffective and wasteful jet-washing of vehicles. The BioMist specialist equipment and *APS chemical now achieves nil food pathogen levels of unit sanitisation and food safety. The process is not only food and animal safe, Halal approved and operator and environmentally friendly but continues to provide residual food safe protection long after treatment for periods in excess of 30 days. (*Antimicrobial Protection System)
Each vehicle unit is treated on a strict 28-day (four weekly) schedule with a generic Master Label applied to every vehicle unit determining the specific ‘Due Date’ of the next scheduled treatment. The Master Label is updated after each treatment.
The process is underpinned by a separate and centrally-controlled Microbial Testing regime which requires vehicles at each Tesco site to be periodically swab tested both before and after treatment with a further control swab taken from randomly selected vehicles (not yet due to be treated) in order to test the time-efficacy of the process as thoroughly as possible. The swabs are tested by an independent UKAS-accredited laboratory and the results recorded via the centralised ‘Sanitrack’ system designed by Bioshield systems.
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