Discount Retail Chain Biedronka Poland (owned by Portuguese Jeronimo Martins) is the largest retail chain in Poland. With such a scale of operations, business emissions are also significant, in 2022 it was 21,634 thousand tonnes of CO2.
"As much as 92.7 percent of them fall (this is the specificity of the entire industry) on the so-called indirect emissions of the 3rd range, i.e. generated in the external supply and service chain", says wnp.pl.
One of the most important ways to reduce the carbon footprint is to invest in renewable energy. The Group installs photovoltaic panels on the roofs of 2,000 stores. The agreement guarantees Biedronka the possibility of receiving electricity from Polish photovoltaic farms (up to 78 GWh per year).
Biedronka is implementing a packaging change project aimed at increasing the level of recycling and reducing plastic consumption. In this project, he works with suppliers and trains them in the principles of eco-design.
The chain offers the Sorteusz application, which is to make it easier for customers to segregate waste.
Biedronka is the largest retail chain in Poland, present on the market for 27 years. At the end of the first quarter of this year, it had 3,404 stores located in over 1,300 towns. It is owned by the Portuguese group Jeronimo Martins.
Environmental impact of food chains The operation of such a large chain of stores as Biedronka has consequences for the environment. In 2022, the Group contributed to 21,634 thousand tonnes of CO2 emissions. This was 0.9% higher than in 2021 and 10.6% higher than in 2020.
The increase in emissions was mainly related to the growing number of outlets and the opening of distribution centers, i.e. increasing the scope of operations. This is accompanied by a growing number of goods imported into stores and sold in them.
It is worth emphasizing the characteristic structure of CO2 emissions and the related possibilities of their direct reduction. Direct emissions of scope 1, i.e. generated in "production processes" (read: in commercial activities), in 2022 accounted for only 0.6 of the total CO2 emissions of the Biedronka network. Their volume amounted to 120.8 thousand tonnes and most importantly decreased by 3.8% year-on-year, and by over 19% compared to 2019.
Read more: Biedronka gra w zielone (dlahandlu.pl)
