Working in Partnership for a Happier World

This week, the Partnership is sharing our achievements across all areas of our ethics and sustainability strategy over the last year, along with our ambitions for the future. What this all adds up to is how we’re delivering on our Purpose to work ‘in Partnership for a Happier World’.?

Last November, I attended COP26 as a guest of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales as part of his Sustainable Markets Initiative. I hosted a discussion on how businesses can help customers make more sustainable decisions and I was encouraged by the determination of leaders to shift consumer mindsets and behaviour.?

To create the change, businesses like Waitrose and John Lewis have a responsibility to make it easy for customers. We need to make our products and services as sustainable as possible by design. We still have a way to go, but I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished this year, including creating several new initiatives to accelerate the move to more sustainable consumption.?

Last year, we launched our ￡1m Circular Future Fund to unearth creative and innovative solutions to help us move away from the economic model of 'make, take, dispose' and instead embrace circular models where products are designed to last, be repaired, or get passed on to others before being recycled into new products when they finally wear out. Not only will the circular economy help to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, it also provides opportunities to generate new economic value and jobs and more resilient supply chains.? I am very much looking forward to seeing our grant winners; Polyester Infinity (University of Leeds), Pip and Henry, DAME and Lend and Mend (Scottish Library) work with our partner Hubbub to bring their ideas to life.

Waitrose has committed to the WWF Retailers’ Commitment for Nature, committing us to take action to halve the environmental footprint of a UK shopping basket by 2030.? To do this we will work closely with our farmers and suppliers to ensure the food we sell is sourced responsibly and sustainably.? And to help our farmers work in more environmentally friendly ways, our own Leckford Estate in Hampshire is becoming a centre of excellence for farming with nature.?

Later this year we also plan to share more details about our plans to protect and restore nature, looking particularly at farming methods, as well as how we source and use raw materials for both of our brands.?

As the effects of the climate crisis are accelerating, so must our action to mitigate them.? I’m grateful for the hard work of our many Partners and suppliers who are pushing us forward, and you can read more about their work in our report: bit.ly/3yESlit

We still have a long way to go, but our commitment to our Purpose ‘Working in Partnership for a Happier World’ is unwavering.?