Hi everyone,

If you’ve been following these letters for awhile, you know how motivated we are to reduce our carbon footprint. Last year we made great strides in reducing plastic waste and food waste. And last month we went further, announcing our company’s commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.

It’s an ambitious goal. But, we have already reduced our emissions by 30%, 10 years early, so we are confident we can get there. The impacts of climate change are all around us – it is on everyone’s mind. Including mine. And including Carol’s, from Winnipeg. Her recent email asked: "Would you consider taking your considerable buying power and helping to change the supply chain to support carbon neutral products? I need to feel some optimism that my purchasing habits can impact our planet’s future."

Your letter got me thinking, Carol. Big, bold moves are necessary, but how do our commitments show up in stores and how do they affect our customers? Here is some of what’s happening in our stores and behind the scenes.

There’s always more plastic to cut

• We’ve found very cool ways to eliminate a lot of unnecessary plastic in two of our biggest sellers: coffee and bananas. You’ll find select PC^® coffee products in new 80% paper-based, recyclable containers, which will help us reduce the coffee packaging we currently send to landfills by up to 40%. As for bananas, they’re our biggest plastic reduction success story of 2021. By replacing the plastic strip on the corners of shipping pallets with fibreboard, we’ll eliminate the equivalent of 20 million single-serve plastic water bottles a year from landfills.

We love to reduce food waste

• Our stores have reduced food waste to landfills by nearly 90% over the last six years, thanks to ongoing partnerships with our food rescue partners, local farms and ZooShare Biogas. And, keep an eye out for even more products in our no name^® Naturally Imperfect line-up.

Energy efficiency matters

• You might notice LED lighting in more of our stores, or that you have to open a few more doors on our refrigerators – these are just some ways we’re using energy more efficiently every day. Outside, more fully electric trucks and hybrid refrigerated trailers are joining the Loblaw fleet this year, a change that will help reduce emissions and our impact on the environment.

These changes matter and there are more to come. I’ll keep you updated as we push forward and we’d like you to keep sharing what you think at #HeyPC.

Galen Weston