Aldi Ireland has received the Green Retailer Award at this year’s Green Awards, in recognition of its company-wide commitment to a series of sustainability initiatives, including carbon and waste reduction, biodiversity, community engagement and staff training and awareness.
Aldi received the title at the award ceremony hosted by Business River.
Judges praised Aldi’s commitment to using 100% green electricity, reducing packaging and waste throughout its supply chain and its support of diverse carbon-offsetting projects, among other achievements, the discounter noted.
The Green Awards, first established in 2008, recognise the extraordinary contribution and commitment that companies make towards growing a greener future in Irish business today.
'Sustainability'
According to Aldi, sustainability is ingrained in it’s business ethos, and it is continuously looking at new ways to improve sustainable processes and reduce carbon emissions.
Welcoming the award win, Niall O’Connor, group managing director, Aldi Ireland commented, "The entire team here at Aldi is committed to our sustainability goals and are focused on limiting our environmental impact whether that be through less food waste, reducing our carbon emissions or increasing the use of sustainable energy.”
As part of its long-term commitment towards the environment, Aldi pledged to support the planting of one million native Irish woodland trees by 2025, of which over 400,000 have been planted to date.
This initiative will see a 160,000-tonne reduction in carbon emissions over the next 100 years.
Aldi achieved Carbon Neutral status in January 2019 by continually working to reduce its carbon footprint through a range of initiatives including buying 100% renewable electricity and using greener refrigerant gases.
Aldi highlighted that it is committed to reducing the amount of plastic used across its store network as part of its ongoing carbon reduction programme.
To date, it has removed more than 2,150 tonnes of virgin plastic from its Irish stores and replaced over 930 tonnes of unrecyclable material with recyclable alternatives.
Green Retailer Award
“We consider it a great honour to receive this Green Retailer Award," O’Connor added.
"To be recognised at the Green Awards is something that all companies in the sustainability space aspire towards, and to be considered a stand-out amongst our retail competitors is something we can be very proud of.”
This award is just one of five major sustainability titles that Aldi has received in the last six months.
Irish shoppers voted Aldi as Ireland’s Most Sustainable Supermarket according to the Ireland RepTrak Sustainability Index 2021, while the Business Energy Achievement Awards recently awarded Aldi the top award of Overall Best Energy Achievement as well as Best Energy Achievement in Retail.
The retailer was also named Plastic Pledge Gold Winner at the 2021Pakman Awards.
© 2022 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. For more retail news, click here. Click sign up to subscribe to Checkout.
