ALDI Australia has released its Making Sustainability Affordable report, sharing significant developments towards its national sustainability commitments.
The report unveils a 12 per cent reduction in plastic packaging since 2019, preventing a further 5,500 tonnes of plastic from entering circulation in 2022; an 82 per cent diversion of waste to landfill; and an expansion of its chiller door trial to Victoria, Queensland, and Western Australia after success in New South Wales.
ALDI Australia sustainability director, Daniel Baker said that both new customers and current customers shopping at ALDI more often, can be assured that when they spend 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 said.
“As a business, we are fundamentally focused on delivering for our customers, and we are 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.”
Reducing 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 to reduce plastic packaging by 25 per cent by 2025. ALDI is now almost halfway to achieving this commitment, recording a 12.2 per cent reduction in plastic packaging across its range of exclusive brands since 2019.
This includes flow-wrap packaging (no tray) for ALDI’s Jindurra Station two-star beef mince, which cuts plastic by 70 per cent compared to traditional packaging alternatives; transitioning ALDI’s standard batteries from plastic to paper packaging and phasing out Styrofoam noodle cups from stores later this year, replacing them with a paper-based recyclable alternative.
Sustainability in-store
From the nationwide removal of its 15c reusable plastic bags, through to the trial of chiller doors in a select number of stores across New South Wales, this is part of ALDI’s ongoing commitment to reducing its impact on the environment.
The New South Wales chiller door trial revealed a potential reduction in refrigeration energy usage of approximately 30 per cent. 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.
Fighting food insecurity
ALDI’s commitment to send zero waste to landfill by the end of 2025 has always been at the forefront of its sustainability journey. In its report, ALDI records an 82 per cent diversion of waste from landfill.
For ALDI, this commitment goes hand-in-hand with its food rescue program, which connects ALDI’s stores and distribution centres to partner organisations. ALDI contributed the equivalent of 8.75 million meals in 2022, supporting vulnerable community members.
CERTifed for renewable achievement
ALDI was the first and is the only major Australian supermarket to fully power its operations using 100 per cent renewable electricity. This achievement led to a reduction in ALDI’s operational emissions by 90 per cent 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.
This article originally appeared on retailbiz.com.au.
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