UK supermarket Sainsbury’s has announced it is working with tech company Foodsteps to reduce the environmental impact across its supply chain and measure carbon data.
Foodsteps has promised to build a “granular, auditable data ecosystem”. It said its science-based, product level data combines with its ability to collect supplier data at scale through an AI-enabled ‘Supplier Hub’ to give Sainsbury’s the information it needs when talking to suppliers.
Essentially, Sainsbury’s is moving beyond high-level estimates about carbon data and overall supply chain impact towards a transparent and measurable system.
Through the tie-up, it is expected Sainsbury’s supplier engagement will improve and there will be opportunities for the retailer to work more closely with these businesses on carbon reduction.
In September, last year, Sainsbury’s appointed Rhian Bartlett as chief commercial & sustainability officer. The expanded role for Bartlett brought together the group’s commercial and sustainability agendas under a single leadership for the first time.
Ruth Cranston, director of sustainability at Sainsburys, commented: “As the food system faces mounting pressures from climate change and wider global uncertainty, it’s more important than ever that we work together to drive the resilience and sustainability of our supply chain.
“By partnering with Foodsteps, we gain higher quality carbon data that will help us track our emissions reductions and advance our ambitions to protect and restore nature, supporting our Plan for Better commitments and helping us to drive real and lasting change for people and the planet.”
Anya Doherty, who founded Foodsteps in 2019, added: “We are on a mission to empower the food industry to accelerate its transition to net zero.
“Working alongside a retail leader like Sainsbury’s allows us to scale that impact, driving collaborative change that benefits suppliers, customers, and the planet.”
Stephanie Lambert, managing director of Foodsteps, said: “Building a resilient food system requires the infrastructure to make collaboration scalable.
“We are inspired by Sainsbury’s commitment to using our granular, science-based data and the Foodsteps Supplier Hub to drive decarbonisation across their entire supply chain. By meeting suppliers where they are and providing an automated route for high-fidelity data, we are proving that deep scientific rigour can be applied at the speed and scale the industry urgently needs.”
[image credit: Green Retail World]
