ZAANDAM, NETHERLANDS - Ahold Delhaize is taking its commitment to sustainability one step further, extending its resources to suppliers. The retailer and its European banners have launched open-sourced climate hubs where suppliers can gain insights into carbon emissions.

“What initially commenced as an Albert Heijn initiative, was quickly adapted by Delhaize and eventually arrived at our brands across Europe,” said Wouter Kolk, Chief Executive Officer of Ahold Delhaize Europe and Indonesia. “This is a great example of the local collaboration between the brands and how we can learn from each other’s best practices.”

In addition to learning about Ahold’s commitment to reducing emissions, suppliers can also use these climate hubs to access resources and navigate the process of addressing and reporting carbon emissions. According to a release, this initiative is part of Ahold’s scope 3 decarbonization pathway, which involves carbon emission in its value chain.

The hubs are open-source platforms to support suppliers in starting their decarbonization journey step-by-step and include instruction videos and links to external resources such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and Science Based Target initiative (SBTi).

“Our value chain is a complex system with thousands of suppliers, producers, and farmers around the world supplying hundreds of thousands of products. These products and their related packaging materials, in turn, are composed of materials and ingredients from other suppliers,” commented Jan Ernst de Groot, Chief Legal Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer at Ahold Delhaize. “Mapping the emissions from all these products and materials is a major challenge, for which we need input from our partners. The climate hubs are a great way to encourage our suppliers to track and reduce their emissions.”

Since the end of 2023, all local climate hubs for Ahold’s European retail banners have been live. The retailer aims to continuously develop these climate hubs to maximize support to suppliers.

To read more about this program, click here.

As Ahold Delhaize evolves its sustainability strategy, AndNowUKnow will share the latest details.