Carbon Emissions and the Impact of Climate Change in Retail Industry

Carbon, Climate Change and its Impact on Business
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Carbon, Climate Change and its Impact on Business
For this discussion, a publicly-traded Canadian company, with detailed sustainability/CSR reporting, Loblaws, has been selected and the industry and the company’s carbon reporting and carbon strategy are evaluated and the findings are summarized below.
1 Understanding Carbon Emissions and the Impact of Climate Change on your Company’s Industry
Loblaws belongs to the Retail industry. Guy Bloch (June 16, 2021), posits that in terms of carbon emission output, the retail industry surpasses the automotive, oil, and gas industries, when looked at through the lens of the whole supply chain, contributing to more than 50% of industrial carbon emissions. Due to the increasing public awareness, sustained global and domestic government regulations to reverse the effects of climate change, this industry has awakened to the reality of global businesses keen on reducing their carbon footprints. The effects of climate change like the Hurricane Florence that rocked the U.S. in 2018 are that it cost retailers around $700 million in supply chain-related losses (Howland, et al., April 22, 2019). Below is a summary of the industry that Loblaws operates in.
a. The retail industry was predicted to accelerate carbon emissions through the advancement in eCommerce, a development that necessitates an increase in delivery-related carbon emissions, long before the global Covid-19 pandemic (Guy Bloch, June 16, 2021). The over 50% industrial carbon footprint by the industry means that it is not performing well in terms of reversing the effects of climate change. The consumers in this industry are the ones lending their voices to sustainability issues and putting pressure on the retailers to initiate measures towards environmental sustainability. According to the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) report on retail sustainability (2022), the climate sustainability challenges facing this industry are on two fronts; sustainable internal operations, and ensuring sustainability in production by the producers and in consumption by the consumers. This is summarized as Sustainable Consumption and Production, SCP, and it is believed that the retail industry can achieve this through environmental management systems and cleaner production, educating and informing the consumer, and supply chain management.
b. This industry may be impacted by climate change issues that result from erratic weather patterns that bring about hurricanes, tornadoes, extreme rain, and snow, that affect the supply chain through interruptions in the communication and transport networks (Ratio Institute, May 15, 2021). This disrupts business in the industry.
c. The industry is trying to mitigate emissions by reducing its Green House Gas, GHG, emissions since it emits large quantities of CO2 from its energy consumption and leakages in refrigerants. The high energy consumption can be reduced by timely maintenance of equipment, other energy-saving techniques, and the use of cleaner energy like solar.
d. The industry is adapting through measures such as energy efficiency by use of efficient ventilation, heating, air conditioning, among other measures, and engaging the supply chain by favoring suppliers who have committed to reductions in GHG emissions and pressing upon existing suppliers to take measures towards improvements in reducing emissions (Retail TouchPoints, December 27, 2021).
e. There have been collaborative efforts from retail giants like an initiative launched last year in Geneva, Switzerland, dubbed ‘the Race to Zero Breakthroughs: Retail Campaign’, which is a partnership between the COP26 High-Level Climate Action Champions and supported by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and retailers IKEA, H&M, Walmart, and Kingfisher Plc, to drive climate action and rally other retailers towards reducing their carbon footprint (Climate Champions, July 7, 2021).
f. Yes, NGOs are speaking about climate change in the retail industry. In a study carried out by the research group, IPSOS (n.d.), an NGO says that consumers need to be educated about climate change matters since the challenge of communicating complex issues reduces with an increase in the awareness of issues.
g. The Retail Insider (November 17, 2021), posits that ‘Sustainable Practices Needed to Reduce Negative Impacts of Retail Industry on the Environment in Canada: Report’ and the Forbes issue (Jan 29, 2020), headlines ‘3 Trends Impacting The Retail Industry Right Now.’
h. Ahead of the COP26 conference, the UK government issued retailers with advice on tackling climate change (Internet Retailing, 2021).
i. The impacts of climate change are quite severe in this industry given that its effects on the environment which include adverse weather conditions lead to interruptions in the supply chain, thereby negatively impacting the industry bottom line.
j. The industry is implementing measures to cut carbon emissions by recom...