Coles’ third annual Sustainability Week is now underway, with activities across the Group acknowledging the significant contributions of its 120,000 team members.
While sustainability is a key priority across the business throughout the year, says Coles, the week is aimed at celebrating achievements and further embedding the retailer’s sustainability strategy. This strategy is built around the focus areas of Together to Zero and Better Together, which supports Coles’ ambition to be Australia’s most sustainable supermarket.
Each day this week, more than 2500 stores and sites across the Coles Group will focus on a key area of the sustainability strategy with team member videos, posters and discussions on how to prioritise sustainable ways of working.
Topics will include:
- Food waste
- Recycling
- Packaging
Coles notes a few achievements and initiatives:
- The business has started to transition its in-store bakery bread tags from non-recyclable polystyrene plastic tags to recyclable cardboard tags (which are also made from 100% recycled materials).
- Last month, Coles launched home compostable coffee capsules.
- The retailer has committed to be powered by 100% renewable electricity by June 2025 and already has the agreements in place to meet the commitment.
- Coles became the first major Australian supermarket to launch Own Brand Carbon Neutral Beef last month.
“Sustainability continues to grow in importance for our team members, customers, suppliers and shareholders, across a range of areas such as climate change, packaging and waste, animal welfare, and partnerships,” says Coles Chief Sustainability, Property and Export Officer Thinus Keeve.
“As part of our ambition to be Australia’s most sustainable supermarket we are continuously looking at ways to support our sustainability strategy.”
“This week is about highlighting the many ways we can all work together towards our ambitions, and we recognise that everyone at Coles has a role to play and together we can make a real difference.”
