ALDI Australia has released its ‘Making Sustainability Affordable’ report, documenting progress towards its ambitious sustainability goals.
The release of the ‘Making Sustainability Affordable’ report, says the retailer, comes as ALDI sees increasing customer growth as Australians assess their budgets and look to make changes to their household spending. New data reveals that customers shopped at ALDI stores more often in the second quarter of 2023 (up 5.2%, year-on-year).
ALDI Australia’s Sustainability Director Daniel Baker says that both new customers and current customers shopping at ALDI more often, can be assured that when they spend their hard-earned dollars on groceries at ALDI, it doesn’t come at the expense of the planet.
“Every customer that walks through our doors can rest assured that doing the right thing for the planet and saving money at the till, aren’t mutually exclusive. This is the epitome of our ambition to Make a Good Difference,” he says.
“As a business, we’re fundamentally focused on delivering for our customers, and we’re keenly aware many of them are feeling the pinch right now. For us, we won’t be beaten on the cost of the weekly shop, but that simply doesn’t come at the expense of our commitment to our ambitious sustainability initiatives.”
Plastic packaging
Throughout 2022, ALDI made a number of innovations to its product packaging to transition to more sustainable options.
Driving these changes is the commitment made in 2019 by the retailer to reduce plastic packaging by 25% by 2025.
ALDI is now almost halfway to achieving this commitment, recording a 12.2% reduction in plastic packaging across its range of exclusive brands since 2019. This reduction is said to be equivalent to preventing a further 5500 tonnes of plastic from entering circulation across the year.
In-store shopping experience
In recent months, ALDI says shoppers would have seen some of the ways the retailer has made a ‘Good Difference’ in stores.
This includes the nationwide removal of ALDI’s 15¢ reusable plastic bags and the trial of chiller doors in a select number of stores across NSW.
According to ALDI, the chiller door trial revealed a potential reduction in refrigeration energy usage of approximately 30%. After the success of this trial, ALDI is expanding the trial to retrofit chiller doors in 15 additional stores across Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia.
Food rescue and waste
In its ‘Making Sustainability Affordable’ report, ALDI records an 82% diversion of waste from landfill.
For ALDI, this commitment goes hand-in-hand with its food rescue program, which connects the retailer’s stores and distribution centres to partner organisations. ALDI contributed the equivalent of 8.75 million meals in 2022, supporting vulnerable community members by helping to put food on their tables.
Renewable electricity
ALDI was the first and is the only major Australian supermarket to fully power its operations using 100% renewable electricity.
This achievement, says the retailer, led to a reduction in ALDI’s operational emissions by 90% in FY 2021-2022, compared to FY 2020-2021.
ALDI’s renewable electricity commitment has now been verified by the Clean Energy Regulator’s Corporate Emissions Reduction Transparency Report.
Read ALDI Australia’s ‘Making Sustainability Affordable’ report, here.
