Creating a Sustainable Future, Today

Creating a Sustainable Future, Today

As Metcash’s Sustainability Manager, I have the pleasure of working with everyone in our organisation to create a more sustainable future. Each year World Environment Day comes around in June, which is a great opportunity to reflect on our progress and look forward to what’s ahead. I’m delighted to be able to share some of our highlights from the past year, and what our priorities are going into the next financial year.  

A Commonality of Care Across Metcash

We’ve taken extensive steps through interviews and surveys to understand what Metcash’s internal and external stakeholders value most when it comes to communities and the environment. These insights inform our sustainability initiatives and how we report under the Global Reporting Index (GRI). What we found out is that our people are advocates for many significant social and environmental issues. As anticipated, energy usage, emissions reduction, waste management, recycling, responsible sourcing, and sustainable practices all came out on top. We’ve set ambitious targets in all these areas.

Going Solar at Metcash

Did you know our new Gepps Cross Distribution Centre in South Australia has a 1,000kW solar system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? This system has been a key factor in the new site delivering a 50% reduction in emissions compared with the previous site and achieving a 5 Greenstar rating.  Beyond Gepps Cross, we now have a system in place at our Huntingwood distribution centre. By the end of 2025 we are planning to have more than 6,500kW of power generated through solar across our other distribution centres, including our state-of-the-art site that is currently under construction at Truganina. This is enough to power approximately 1,700 homes for a year, delivering a substantial reduction in Metcash’s overall emissions.

Providing Education: ‘Recycling Myth-Busting’

Education plays a critical role in how Metcash moves the needle on environmental sustainability. We believe that every individual has a part to play and feel passionately about sharing actionable initiatives that all in our community can run with.

To help us all on the recycling journey, here we bust a few recycling myths we have debunked for our team:

1. What I put in the recycling bin isn’t recycled. Between 84 – 96% of kerbside recycling is recycled, depending on location. The remainder that is not recycled is usually due to non-recyclable items being placed in the wrong bin.
2. Recycling is costing the economy. Landfill levies of $33 - $141 per tonne mean that recycling is the much cheaper option.
3. All plastic with a triangle symbol can be recycled. This symbol denotes the type of plastic used and is not an indicator of recyclability.
4. Recycling can only be done at kerbside. There are many national programs with industry funding that facilitate the recycling of more complex items.
5. Products with recycled materials are hard to find.  You may be aware that a large proportion of cardboard is made of recycled materials, but did you also know that outdoor furniture, road base, paving, decking, PET bottles, cans, railway sleepers, bollards and garden beds are also being made with recycled material?

Metcash is a signatory to the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, which highlights our commitment to ensuring our packaging is made from at least 50% recycled material and is 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

Sustainability in our Food Pillar

The Metcash Food team worked with our retailers to gain endorsement from the National Retail Council and State Boards for its sustainability vision, strategy, and delivery pathways.

The strategy includes having nine key focus areas that address “caring for the environment, supporting our community, and empowering our people.” The team is now focused on driving momentum in key initiatives across the IGA network, such as:  

·      The Food Rescue program: Every year ~8 million tonnes of food does not get to the dinner table of Australian families, and alarmingly one in five Australian families is food insecure. IGA has partnered with ‘Food for Change’ which to date has led to 1.1million meals being diverted from landfill to families who are food insecure.

·      Battery Recycling: over 350 million batteries are consumed every year, however, only 8% are recycled. IGA has partnered with ‘EcoBatt’ to provide retailers with a solution for their shoppers to recycle their batteries in their IGA store.

So Much More to Come

With our 2023 sustainability report on the horizon, we’re looking forward to sharing how we’ve evolved and progressed toward our targets. If you’re interested in learning more about sustainability at Metcash, you can check out our 2022 sustainability report.