Coles Sustainability

At Coles we take responsibility for managing our environmental and social impacts seriously. Our ambition is to be Australia’s most sustainable supermarket and we're always looking for opportunities to make a positive difference through our commitment to sustainable products, sustainable environmental practices and sustainable communities.

Coles is committed to sourcing quality, healthy products in an ethical and responsible way

We want to make it easier for our customers to make sustainable choices, so we take a sustainability mindset when developing our Own Brand products.Coles Own Brand products are sourced ethically and responsibly. Suppliers must meet our policies and requirements across a range of areas including product safety, human rights, animal welfare, health and nutrition and packaging.We want to provide all Australians with great-tasting Own Brand products that deliver healthier choices for our customers and meet their dietary needs. We've developed a range of policies that cover salt, sugar and trans fat reduction, the use of artificial colours and flavours, and nutrition and health labelling for our Own Brand products.We also support the Health Star Rating, a Federal Government front-of-pack labelling program aimed at assisting customers to make healthier choices when buying packaged foods.

Climate change

Fires, floods and other extreme weather events all have the potential to affect our customers, our suppliers and our own operations. As we face the impacts of climate change, we need to be able to respond quickly so that we can continue to serve our customers around the country.Whether it’s chartering a plane or a boat to get stock through floods, or working with emergency services and food rescue organisations to support communities devastated by bushfire, we have developed and will continue to develop business continuity plans. This includes working with our suppliers to build supply chain resilience through the $50M Coles Nurture Fund, which has supported a range of climate adaptation programs to mitigate against the impact of drought.Reducing our own greenhouse emissions is a key part of our climate change response. We spend millions of dollars each year investing in initiatives such as improving the energy efficiency of refrigeration systems in our stores and distribution centres.

Waste and recycling

To minimise food waste across our supply chains and our own operations, every Coles supermarket and distribution centre is connected to a food waste solution. Rather than going to landfill, food is helping people in need, assisting farmers to feed their animals, being recycled into compost or converted into energy.Through our partnerships with SecondBite and Foodbank, we've been able to provide more than 147 million healthy and nutritious meals to community organisations across Australia that support people in need. More than 390 stores are connected with farmers who feed their animals with products that can’t go to SecondBite or Foodbank.We're also reducing food waste in our supply chain by redirecting produce that typically would not be sold into other value-added products. Bananas are used in Coles Brand frozen banana pieces, banana bread and muffins. Cauliflower and broccoli are turned into broccoli and cauliflower rice. These products and others, such as zucchini noodles, sweet potato noodles and sweet potato chips, are all helping our suppliers use up more of their crops and cut food waste. With less food going to landfill, we're also helping to lower our greenhouse gas emissions as part of our climate change response.

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