Sainsbury’s Pledges £1 billion, To Become Carbon Neutral By 2040

J Sainsbury Plc (LON: SBRY) one of the largest supermarket operators in the United Kingdom has announced that it has pledged £1 billion in spending to make itself carbon neutral by 2040. The supermarket chain, whose product offerings include Retail Food, General Merchandise, Clothing, Financial Services, as well as Property Investments, has a current carbon footprint of 1 million tons per annum. This incidentally is a 35 per cent reduction of what the company’s carbon footprint was fifteen years ago, and a result of the companies sustained efforts to reduce the same over the period. Reducing the carbon footprint is a major objective that has been set out by many companies in the past few years in their pledge to do more for the protection and preservation of the environment.

Carbon footprint in its widest definition includes all non-natural activities that contribute to the emission of carbon dioxide and other potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It includes activities ranging from burning of fossil fuels to burning of biomass and even breathing, which also contributes to global emissions in a way. The reason for the concept of carbon footprint gaining significance today is that the emission of carbon dioxide and other such polluting gases due to human activity have now become unsustainable for nature to be able to process it in its normal cycle. Incidentally, carbon emissions also come from several other naturally occurring processes to which we unknowingly contribute, for example, bio emission of methane. Counted, as one of the most potent amongst other potent greenhouse gases, methane is several times more powerful in harming the environment than carbon dioxide. This gas is naturally released via biological processes when any living organism dies and decays and could range from animals to trees, fruits and vegetable and leaves falling from trees. One of the largest emitters of bio-methane are swamps around the world and one the largest emitter of man-made bio-methane processes is rice cultivation which requires long periods of time when water is allowed to stand in the fields allowing for large scale emission of this gas. Municipal waste is also a large emitter of this gas unless it is treated in bio-digesters, and the gas is isolated to be burnt for gainful use and not released into the atmosphere.

The unsustainable state of environment because of these emissions now requires urgent and active human efforts so that the levels of these emissions may be brought down to sustainable levels. Reducing the usage of fossil fuels, avoiding open burning of biomass and other waste products and using more energy-efficient technologies that can reduce carbon emissions on a large scale, but in a micro-level also several measures can be taken to reduce carbon footprints, even on an individual level. Walking to work, using a bicycle, carpooling and using public transport can reduce an individual's carbon footprint by several notches with regards to one's transportation needs. In our day to day lives, we can eat more seasonal foods, avoid foods requiring higher processing needs, use less water for our daily ablution needs and reduce or completely eliminate the use of cooling and air-conditioning needs are several of the other measures that can help reduce our domestic carbon footprint. For large organisations and companies, they stand to be able to do more to reduce their carbon footprints. Companies can use energy-saving building methods to reduce their energy usage and store excess energy. These organisations are in a better position financially than individuals to adopt advanced renewable energy technologies like solar power and fuel cell power backup technologies that can significantly reduce their carbon footprint while promoting renewable energy.

However, only trying to reduce carbon footprint by cutting down on all human activities is not a sustainable act. We as the human race have to evolve to more advanced ways of doing things, which on the energy usage and carbon footprint front translates into the replacement of old technologies with more energy-efficient processes and increasing the use more renewable energy and reduce dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels. There are several technologies that are emerging as prospective contenders to replace currently employed high carbon-emitting technologies. Most prominent of these technologies are electric vehicle technologies which are fast making inroads into a market dominated by the internal combustion engines for nearly a century. Underpinning on the high energy density and high energy storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries, it is now possible to build electric vehicles that can offer similar kind of performance as internal combustion engines with the carbon dioxide emission. The other two emerging technologies that are already having the most impact on the global renewable energy initiative are solar power and wind power. Solar cells are capable of converting sunlight to electricity which can be stored in batteries and can be used when sunlight is not available. While solar energy can only produce electricity when the sun is shining, wind energy can be harnessed throughout the day by large windmills which catch wind currents to produce electricity. There are also a large number of other emerging energy technologies, but the above three are currently leading the majority of the world’s effort in this regard.

Currently, a lot of endeavour world over is being put both on governmental levels as well as on individual, institutional levels to bring about positive environmental changes and try to reverse as many ill effects of decades of environmental degradation that the world has already sustained. Several governments across the world are providing tax subsidies to enterprises that are working in this field. Several governmental and non-governmental bodies have pledged large amounts of funds to support larges scale efforts to implement such technologies. Several corporates have also come forward to financially and organisationally supporting budding renewable energy companies to grow and achieve sustainable levels of business activity so that the implementation of these technologies can be fast-tracked and several years of environmental degradation may be reversed.

Sainsbury’s in its present effort plans to work with Carbon Trust, an international body with the objective to accelerate efforts to achieve a low carbon economy. The organisation will help Sainsbury’s to assess its total emissions and help it set carbon emission targets for reduction and release public disclosure on a six-monthly basis. In this effort, the company also plans to work with its suppliers to set their own emission goals and help them reduce it. Supermarkets like Sainsbury’s have a huge impact on the way its individual customers use their products and can be a great influence in helping more and more people adopt a healthier and carbon-neutral way of life. The move by Sainsbury’s is highly encouraging, and if more and more companies put similar efforts as Sainsbury’s has put, achieving global emission targets will become a lot easier.