Supermarket Sainsbury’s has achieved a 3.5 per cent reduction in weight on its own brand packaging for the period to March 2013.
In its second quarter corporate responsibility and sustainability update, the retailer said that this was a 26.2 per cent reduction in weight against the 2005/06 baseline for its own brand products.
It now also has a 5 per cent annual reduction target in its commercial plans for each product category.
Sainsbury’s also revealed that it has completed the refurbishment of its 100th recycling centre in Watchmore Park, Camberley. This centre now takes packaging recycling, as well as clothes and book banks in conjunction with Oxfam.
In the last year, 10 million items of clothing and 2 million books, CDs and DVDs were donated to Oxfam. This makes Sainsbury’s the largest provider of donations outside of Oxfam’s stores.
Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King said: “It has been another quarter of good progress towards our 20×20 sustainability goals with significant achievements across all of our five values.”
The company also noted that its vehicle fleet now contains the world’s first CO2 refrigerated trailer. It has installed more than 100,000 PV solar panels across 210 stores reducing its CO2 emissions by 9,785 tonnes per year.
